Id  London 


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Old  London  Street 
Cries 

AND     THE     CRIES     OF     TO-DAY 
WITH 

Heaps    of  Quaint  Cuts 

IXCLUDING 

Hand-coloured  Frontispiece : 

BY 

Andrew  W.  Tuer, 

Author  of  "  Bartolozzi  and  his\Vorks,"  &c 


1887. 

NEW    YORK: 

Published  for 

The  Old  London   Street  Company, 

728,     BROADWAY. 

[Rights  Reserved:  Wrongs  Revenged! 


k 


PRINTED  AT 

THE    LEADENHALL     PRESS 

LONDON,  E.G. 

T   4.237- 


Introductory. 


''  I  ^HE  "  Cries"  have  been  sufficiently  well 
received  In  bolder  form  to  Induce  the 
publication   of    this    additionally   Illustrated 
extension  at  a  more  popular  price. 


.A     ZJ^JS 


Old  London  Street  Cries, 


T^ATES,  unless  in  the  form  of  the  luscious  fruit  of 
Smyrna,  are  generally  diXy.  It  is  enough  there- 
fore to  state  that  the  earliest  mention  of  London  Cries 
is  found  in  a  quaint  old  ballad  entitled  "  London 
Lyckpenny,"  or  Lack  penny,  by  that  prolific  writer, 
John  Lydgate,  a  Benedictine  monk  of  Bury  St.  Ed- 
munds, who  flourished  about  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century. 

These  cries  are  particularly  quaint,  and  especially 
valuable  as  a  record  of  the  daily  life  of  the  time. 


Then  unto  London  I  dyd  me  hye, 
Of  all  the  land  it  beareth  the  pr^^se  : 

Hot  pescodes,  one  began  to  crye, 

Strabery  rype,  and  cherryes  in  the  ryse  ;  * 

*  On  the  bough. 

^'  One 


"  /  love  a  Ballad  in  print,  a'lije ;  /or  then  we  are  sure 
they  are  //-«f."— Winter's  Tale,  Act.  iv.,  Sc.  iv. 


London  Cries. 


One  bad  me  come  nere  and  by  some  spyce, 
Peper  and  safforne  they  gan  me  bede, 
But  for  lack  of  money  I  myght  not  spede. 

Then  to  the  Chepe  I  began  me  drawne, 
Where  mutch  people  I  saw  for  to  stande  ; 

One  spred  me  velvet,  sylke,  and  lawne, 
Another  he  taketh  me  by  the  hande, 

"  Here  is  Parys  thred,  the  fynest  in  the  land  ;" 
I  never  was  used  to  such  thyngs  indede, 
And  wantyng  money  I  myght  not  spede. 

Then  went  I  forth  by  London  stone, 

Throughout  all  Canwyke*  Streete  ; 
Drapers  mutch  cloth  me  offred  anone. 

Then  comes  me  one  cryed  hot  shepes  feete  ; 
One  cryde  makerell,  rysterf  grene,  an  other  gan  greete 

On  bad  me  by  a  hood  to  cover  my  head, 

But  for  want  of  mony  I  myght  not  be  sped. 

Then  I  hyed  me  into  Est-Chepe  ; 

One  cryes  rybbs  of  befe,  and  many  a  pye  ; 

Since  Lydgate's  time  the  cries  of  London  have  been 
a  stock  subject  for  ballads  and  children's  books,  of 


Candlewick.         '\  Rushes  green. 

which 


London  Cries. 


which,  in  various  forms,  some  hundreds  must  have 
appeared  within  the  last  two  centuries.  The  cuts,  un- 
less from  the  hand  of  a  Rowlandson  or  a  Cruikshank, 
are  usually  of  the  mechanical  order  ;  and  one  finds 
copies  of  the  same  illustrations,  though  differently 
treated,  constantly  reappearing. 

In  the  books  there  is  usually  a  cut  on  each  page, 
with  a  cry  printed  above  or  underneath,  and  in  addi- 
tion a  verse  of  descriptive  poetry,  which,  if  not  of  the 
highest  order,  serves  its  purpose. 

With  his  machine  and  ass  to  help 

To  draw  the  frame  along, 
Pray  mark  the  razor-grinder's  yelp 

The  burden  of  his  song. 
His  patched  umbrella  quick  aloft 

He  mounts  if  skies  should  lower. 
Then  laughing  whirls  his  wheel  full  oft, 

Nor  heeds  the  falling  shower. 

A  well-known  collection  is  that  entitled  "  Habits  ^<. 
"Cryes  of  the  City  of  London,  drawne  after  the  Life  ; 
P.  [Pearce]  Tempest,  excudit,"  containing  seventy-four 
plates,  drawn  by  Marcellus  Laroon  [Lauron],  and  re- 
published in  171 1.  The  first  edition,  with  only  fifty 
illustrations,  had  appeared  some  three-and-twenty 
years  earlier  ;  and  many  of  the  copper-plates  in  the 

later 


Londo7t  Cries. 


later  issue  were  so  altered  as  to  bring  the  costume 
into  the  fashion  of  the  time  of  repubUcation.  The 
hats  had  their  high  crowns  cut  down  into  low;  and 
shoe-buckles  were  substituted  for  laces.  Otherwise 
the  plates, — with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  faces, 
which  were  entirely  re-engraved, — were  left  in  their 
original  condition.*  The  letter-press  descriptions  are 
in  English,  French,  and  Italian.  The  engraver,  Mar- 
cellus  Lauron,  or  Captain  Laroon,  who  was  born  in 
London,  has  left  on  record  that  his  family  name  was 
Lauron,  but  being  always  called  Laroon,  he  adopted 
that  spelling  in  early  life.  Of  the  seventy-four  plates, 
those  representing  eccentric  characters,  etc.,  are  omit- 
ted from  the  list  that  follows  : — 
Any  Card  Matches  or  Save  Alls  } 
Pretty  Maids,  Pretty  Pins,  Pretty  Women  ! 

"  I  remember,"  says  Hone,  "  that  pins  were  disposed  of  in 
this  manner,  in  the  streets  by  women.  Their  cry  was  a  musical 
distich  :  — 

'  Three  Rows  a  Penny  pins, 
Short,  Whites,  and  Mid-dl-ings  ! '  " 
Ripe  Strawberryes  ! 

*  Mr,  J.  E,  Gardner's  collection  of  prints  and  drawings  illus- 
trating London,  and  numbering  considerably  over  120,000,  con- 
tains many  fine  prints  illustrating  Old  London  Cries,  including 
numerous  examples  of  the  alterations  here  indicated. 

A 


LoJidou  Cries, 


Three  Rows  a  Penny  pins  i' 

A  Bed  Matt  [mat]  or  a  Door  IMatt  ! 
Buy  a  fine  Table  Basket? 
Ha,  ha,  Poor  Jack  ! 

Can  hardly  be  called  a  London  cry  :  the  call  of  a  well-known 
character,  who,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  sold  fish. 

Buy  my  Dish  of  great  Eeles  ? 

Buy 


London  Cries. 


Buy  a  fine  Singing  Bird?" 


London  Cries. 


Buy  a  fine  singing  Bird  ? 

Buy  any  wax  or  wafers  ? 

Fine  Writeing  Ink  ! 

A  Right  Merry  Song  ! 

Old  Shoes  for  some  Broomes  ! 

Hott  baked  Wardens  [stewed  pears]  Hott  ! 

Small  Coale  ! 

Swift  mentions  this  cry  in  his  "  Morning  in  Town." 

"  The  Small  Coal  Man  was  heard  with  cadence  deep 
Till  drowned  in  shriller  notes  of  '  Chimney  Sweep.'  " 

Maids,  any  Coonie  [rabbit]  Skinns  ? 
Buy  a  Rabbit,  a  Rabbit  ? 
Chimney  Sweep  ! 
Crab,  Crab,  any  Crab  ? 
Oh,  Rare  Shoe  ! 
Lilly  White  Vinegar  ! 
Buy  any  Dutch  Biskets? 
Ripe  Speregas  !  [asparagus] 
Buy  a  Fork  or  a  Fire  Shovel .?  [See  p.  13.] 
Maids,  buy  a  Mapp  ?  [mop] 
Buy  my  fat  Chickens  ? 
]5uy  my  Plounders  .-* 
Old  Cloaks,  Suits,  or  Coats  ? 
[Succeeding  Old  Doublets,  the  cry  of  a  slightly  earlier  period.] 
Fair  Lemons  and  Oranges  ? 

Old 


London  Cries. 


II 


Fine   WriUing  Ink  !  " 


1 2  London  CiHes. 

Old  Chaires  to  Mend  ? 
Twelve  Pence  a  Peck,  Oysters  ! 
Troope  every  one  !  [See  p.  17.] 

The  man  blowing  a  trumpet — troope  every  one  ! — was  a 
street  seller  of  toy  hobby-horses.  He  carried  his  wares  in  a 
sort  of  cage  ;  and  to  each  rudely  represented  horse's  head  was 
attached  a  small  flag.  The  toy  hobby-horse  has  long  since 
disappeared,  and  nowadays  we  give  a  little  boy  a  stick  to  thrust 
between  his  legs  as  a  Bucephalus.  Hone  opines  that  our  fore- 
fatliers  were  better  natured,  for  they  presented  him  with  some- 
thing of  the  semblance  of  the  genuine  animal. 

Old  Satten,  Old  Taffety,  or  Velvet ! 
Buy  a  new  Almanack  ! 
Buy  my  Singing  Glasses  ! 

These  were  long  bell-mouthed  glass  tubes.  The  writer 
recollects  that  when  a  boy  he  purchased,  for  a  copper  or  two, 
fragile  glass  trumpets  of  a  similar  description. 

Any  Kitchen  Stuffe  have  you,  Maids  .'' 

Knives,  Combs,  or  Inkhorns  ! 

Four  for  Six  Pence,  Mackrell  ! 

Any  work  for  the  Cooper  ? 

Four  Paire  for  a  ShiUing,  Holland  Socks  ! 

Colly  Molly  Puffe  ! 

The  cry  of  a  noted  seller  of  pastry.  He  is  mentioned  in 
the  Spectator,  No.  -xw. 

Sixpence  a  pound,  Fair  Cl.erryes  !  [See  p.  21.] 

Knives 


London  Cries. 


"  Buy  a  Fork  or  a  Fire  Shovel 'i" 


14  London  Cries. 


Knives  or  Cisers  to  Grinde  ! 
Long  thread  Laces,  long  and  strong  ! 
Remember  the  poor  Prisoners  ! 
In   a   series  of  early  prints  in  the  Bridgewatcr  library,    from 
copper  plates,  by  an   unknown  artist,  probably  engraved  be- 
tween 1650  and  1680,  there  is  one  thus  titled  :   "  Some  broken 
Breade  and  meate  for  ye  poore  prisoners  :  for  the  Lorde's  sake 
pittey  the  poore."     Within  the  memory  of  our  fathers  a  tin  box 
was  put  out  from  a  grated  window  in  the  Fleet  prison,  a  prisoner 
meanwhile  imploring  the  public  to  remember  the  poor  debtors. 
In  the  "  Cries  of  York,  for  the  amusement  of  young  children," 
undated,   but  published  probably  towards  the  end  of  the  last 
century,  are  the  following  lines  :  — 

Of  prisoners  in  the  Castle  drear 

Come  buy  a  Kalendar, 

Their  crimes  and  names  are  set  down  here 

Tis  Truth  I  do  declare. 

A  brass  Pott  or  an  Iron  Pott  to  mend  ! 
Buy  my  four  ropes  of  Hard  Onyons  ! 
London'' s  Gazette  here  ! 
The  London  Gazette,  established  in  1665. 

Buy  a  White  Line  or  a  Jack  Line,  or  a  Cloathes 
Line. 
Any  old  Iron  take  money  for  } 
DeHcate  Cowcumbers  to  pickle  ! 
Any  Bakcing  Peares  .'* 
New  River  Water  ! 

The 


London  Cries. 


15 


Fine  Oysters . 


1 6  London  Cries. 

The  cry  of  "Marking  Stones,"  which  marked 
black  or  red,  and  preceded  the  daintier  cedar-encased 
lead  pencil  of  our  own  time,  is  not  mentioned  by 
Laroon.  J.  T.  Smith,"^  says  that  the  colour  of  the  red 
marking-stone  was  due  to  "  Ruddle,"  a  colour  not  to 
be  washed  out,  and  that  fifty  years  ago  (he  wrote  in 
1839)  it  was  the  custom  at  cheap  lodging-houses  to 
mark  with  it  on  linen  the  words,  "  Stop  thief  I  " 

The  following  lines  are  from  a  sheet  of  London 
Cries,  twelve  in  number,  undated,  but  probably  of 
James  the  Second's  time  : — 

Buy  marking-stones,  marking-stones  buy, 

Much  profit  in  their  use  doth  lie  ; 

I've  marking-stones  of  colour  red, 

Passing  good,  or  else  black  lead. 

In  the  British  Museum  is  a  folio  volume  con- 
taining another  curious  little  collection,  on  three  sheets, 
of  early  London   cries;  also  undated  and  of  foreign 

*  "The  Cries  of  London:"  Copied  from  rare  engravings 
or  drawn  from  the  life  by  John]JThomas  Smith,  late  Keeper  of 
the  Prints  in  the  British  Museum,  1839.  On  inquiring  at  the  Print 
Department  of  the  British  Museum  for  a  copy  of  this  work,  the 
attendant  knew  nothing  of  it,  and  was  quite  sure  the  department 
had  no  such  book.  It  turned  up  on  a  little  pressure,  however, 
but  the  leaves  were  uncut. — Les  morts  vont  vite  ! 

workmanship, 


London  Crtes. 


17 


'  Troopc  every  one  I ' 


i8 


London  Cries. 


workmanship,  but  attributable  to  the  time  of  Charles 
II.  The  first  sheet  has  a  principal  representation  of 
a  rat-catcher  with  a  banner  emblazoned  with  rats  ;  he 
is  attended  by  an  assistant  boy,  and  underneath  are 
these  lines  : — 

He  that  will  have  neither 
Ratt  nor  mousse, 
Lett  him  pluck  of  the  tilles 
And  set  fire  of  his  hows. 


Then  come  the  following  cries 

Cooper. 
En  of  golde  ! 
Olde  Dublets  ! 
Blackinge  man. 
Tinker.  • 
I'ippins  ! 
Bui  a  matte  ! 
Coales  ! 

Chimney  swepes. 
Bui  brumes  ! 
Camphires !  [Sampinic] 
Cherrie  ripe  ! 
Alminake  ! 
Coonie  skine  ! 
Mussels  ! 


Cabeches  ! 
Kitchen  stuff ! 
Glasses  ! 
Cockels  ! 
Hartti  Chaks  ! 
Mackrill! 
Oranges,  Lemens  ! 
Lettice  ! 
Place  ! 
Olde  Iron  ! 
Aqua  vita:  ! 
Pens  and  Ink  ! 
Olde  bellows  ! 
Herrings  ! 
Eui  any  milke  .'* 

Piepm 


Londo7i  Cries. 


19 


Alilk  below.  Maids!" 


20 


London  Crie 


s. 


Piepin  pys  ! 
Osters  ! 
Shades  ! 


Turneps ! 
Rossmarie  Baie  ! 
Onions. 


The   principal   figure   on   the   second   sheet  is  the 
"  Belman,"'  with  halberd,  lanthorn,  and  dog. 

^layds  in  your  Smocks,  Loocke 
Wei  to  your  locke — 
Your  fire 
And  your  light, 
&  God 

Give  you  good-night. 
At 
One  o'clock. 

This  is  followed  by  : 

Buy  any  shrimps  ? 
Buy  some  figs  ? 
Buy  a  tosting  iron  ? 
Lantorne  Candellyht. 
Buy  any  maydes  ? 
The  Water  Bearer. 
Buy  a  whyt  pot  ? 
Bread  and  Meate  ! 
Buy  a  candelsticke  ? 
Buy  any  prunes  ? 
Buy  a  washing  ball  ? 


Good  sasages  ! 

Buy  a  purs  ? 

Buy  a  dish  a  flounders  ? 

Buy  a  footestoole  ? 

Buy  a  fine  bowpot  ? 

Buy  a  pair  a  shoes  .'* 

Buy  any  garters  .'* 

Featherbeds  to  dryue  ? 

Buy  any  bottens  ? 

Buy  any  whiting  maps  ? 

Buy  any  tape  .'* 

Worcestersljyr 


London  Cries. 


21 


Sixpence  a  pound,   Fair  Cherryes  i 


22 


London  Cries. 


Worcestershyr  salt  ! 
Ripe  damsons  ! 
Buy  any  marking  stoes  ? 
The  Bear  bayting. 
Buy  any  blew  starch  ? 
Buy  any  points  ? 
New  Hado.sf  ! 


Yards  and  Ells  ! 
Buy  a  fyne  brush  ? 
Hote  mutton  poys  ! 
New  sprats  new  ! 
New  cod  new  ! 
Buy  any  reasons  ? 
P.  and  glasses  to  mend 


The  public  "  Cryer"  on  the  third  sheet,  who  bears 
a  staff  and  keys,  humorously  speaks  as  follows  : 

"  O  yis,  any  man  or  woman  that 
Can  tell  any  tydings  of  a  little 
Mayden  childe  of  the  age  of  24 
Yeares.     Bring  worde  to  the  Cryer 
And  you  shal  be  pleased  for 

Your  labor, 
And  God's  blessinge." 

Then  follow  : 


Buy  any  wheat  ? 
Buy  al  my  smelts  ? 
Quick  periwinckels  ! 
Rype  chesnuts  ! 
Payres  fyn  ! 
White  redish  vvhyt ! 
Buy  any  whyting  ? 
Buy  any  bone  lays  ? 


I  ha  rype  straberies  ! 
Buy  a  case  for  a  hat  ? 
Birds  and  hens  ! 
Hote  podding  pyes  ! 
Buy  a  hair  line  ? 
Buy  any  pompcons  ? 
Whyt  scalions  ! 
Rype  walnuts  ! 

Fyne 


London  Cries. 


23 


"Songs,  penny  a  sheet  I" 


24 


London  Cries. 


Fyne  potatos  fyn  ! 
Hote  eele  pyes  ! 
Fresh  cheese  and  creame  ? 
Buy  any  garlick  ? 
Buy  a  longe  brush  ? 
Whyt  carets  whyt  ! 
Fyne  pomgranats  ! 
Buy  any  Russes  ? 
Hats  or  caps  to  dress  ? 
Wood  to  cleave  ? 


Pins  of  the  Maker  ! 
Any  sciruy  gras  ? 
Any  comes  to  pick  ? 
Buy  any  parsnips  ? 
Hot  codhnges  hot  ! 
Buy  all  my  soales  ? 
Good  morrow  m. 
Buy  any  cocumber  ? 
New  thornebacke  ! 
Fyne  oate  cakes  ! 


From  all  this  it  will  be  seen  that  merchandise  of 
almost  every  description  was  formerly  "  carried  and 
cried"  in  the  streets.  When  shops  were  little  more 
than  open  shanties,  the  apprentice's  ciy  of"  What  d'ye 
lack,  what  d'ye  lack,  my  masters  ?  "  was  often  accom- 
panied by  a  running  description  of  the  goods  on  sale, 
together  with  personal  remarks,  complimentary  or 
otherwise,  to  likely  and  unlikely  buyers. 

A  very  puzzling  London  Cry,  yet  at  one  time  a  very 
common  one,  was  "  A  tormentor  for  your  fleas  ! "  * 
What  the  instrument  so  heralded  could  have  been, 
one  can  but  dimly  guess.  A  contributor  to  Eraser's 
Magazine ^\.^\\s  us  that  in  a  collection  of  London  Cries 
appended    to   Thomas    Heywood's   Rape  of  Lucrece 


See  Appendix. 


(l6c8), 


London  Cries.  25 


(1608),  he  gives  us  this  one  ;  "  Buy  a  very  fine  mouse- 
trap, or  a  tormentor  for  your  fleaes  ; "  and  the  cry  of 
the  mouse-trap  man  in  Ben  Jonson's  Bartholomew 
Fair  (1614),  is,  "  Buy  a  mouse-trap,  a  mouse-trap,  or  a 
tormentor  for  a  flea."  The  flea-trap  is  also  alluded  to 
in  The  Boiidiica  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  and  in 
Travels  of  Tiuelve-Pence^  by  Taylor,  the  Water  Poet ; 
and  it  reappears  in  a  broadside  in  the  Roxburgh  Col- 
lection of  Ballads,  "  The  Common  Cries  of  London  " 
[dated  1662,  but  probably  written  a  hundred  years 
earlier] :  "  Buy  a  trap,  a  mouse-trap,  a  torment  for  the 
fleas  !  "  When  the  great  Bard  of  the  Lake  School  was 
on  a  tour,  he  made  a  call  at  an  inn  where  Shelley  hap- 
pened to  be  ;  but  the  conversation,  which  the  young 
man  would  fain  have  turned  to  philosophy  and  poetry 
and  art,  was  almost  confined  to  the  elder  poet's  prosaic 
description  of  his  dog  as  "  an  excellent  flea-trap."  It 
may  be  assumed  that  fleas  Avere  plentiful  when  this 
cry  was  in  vogue  ;  and  it  may  have  been  that  the  trap 
was  p^rt  of  the  (undressed  ?)  skin  of  an  animal  with 
the  hair  left  on,  in  which  fleas  would  naturally  take 
refuge,  drowning,  perhaps,  being  their  ultimate  fate. 
But  all  this  is  mere  conjecture. 

It  was  unlikely  that  so  close  an  observer  of  London 
life  as  Addison  should   leave  unnoticed  the  Cries  of 
London  ;  and  the  Spectator  is  interspersed  with  occa- 
sional 


26  London  Cries. 

sional  allusions  to  them.  In  No.  ccli.we  read :  "There  is 
nothing  which  more  astonishes  a  Foreigner,  and  frights 
a  Country  Squire,  than  the  Cries  of  London.  My  good 
Friend  Sir  ROGER  often  declares  that  he  cannot  get 
them  out  of  His  Head,  or  go  to  sleep  for  them,  the 
first  Week  that  he  is  in  Town.  On  the  contrary,  Will 
H0NEYC0?.IB  calls  them  the  Ra7)m^e  de  la  Ville,  and 
prefers  them  to  the  Sounds  of  Larks  and  Nightingales, 
with  all  the  Musick  of  the  Fields  and  Woods." 

In  Steele's  comedy  of  The  Funeral^  Trim  tells  some 
ragged  soldiers,  "There's  a  thousand  things  you  might 
do  to  help  out  about  this  town,  as  to  ciy  Puff-Puff 
Pyes  ;  have  you  any  Knives  or  Scissors  to  grind  ?  or 
late  in  an  evening,  whip  from  Grub  Street  strange  and 
bloody  News  from  Flanders j  Votes  from  the  House 
of  Commons  ;  Buns,  rare  Buns  ;  Old  Silver  Lace, 
Cloaks,  Sutes  or  Coats  ;  Old  Shoes,  Boots  or  Hats." 

Gay,  too,  who,  in  his  microscopic  lyric  of  the  streets. 
Trivia^  omitted  little,  thus  sings  of  various  street 
cries  : — 

Now  Industry  awakes  her  busy  sons  ; 
Full  charged  with  News  the  breathless  hawker  runs  ; 
Shops  open,  coaches  roll,  carts  shake  the  ground, 
And  all  the  streets  with  passing  cries  resound. 
******* 

When 


LoJidon  Cries, 


27 


"Buy  a  doll,  Miss\f  \ 


28  London  Cries. 

When  all  the  Mall  in  leafy  ruin  lies, 

And  damsels  first  renew  their  Oyster  cries. 

When  small  coal  murmurs  in  the  hoarser  throat, 
From  smutty  dangers  guard  thy  threatn'd  coat. 

******* 
What  though  the  gathering  mire  thy  feet  besmear, 
The  voice  of  Industry  is  always  near. 
Hark  !  the  boy  calls  thee  to  his  destined  stand, 
And  the  shoe  shines  beneath  his  oily  hand. 

Sadly  he  tells  the  tale  of  a  poor  Apple  girl  who  lost 
her  life  on  the  frozen  Thames  : — 

Doll  every  day  had  walk'd  these  treacherous  roads  ; 
Her  neck  grew  warpt  beneath  autumnal  loads 
Of  various  fruit  :    she  now  a  basket  bore  ; 
That  head,  alas  !  shall  basket  bear  no  more. 
Each  booth  she  frequent  past,  in  quest  of  gain, 
And  boys  with  pleasure  heard  her  shrilling  strain. 
Ah,  Doll  !   all  mortals  must  resign  their  breath, 
And  industry  itself  submit  to  death  ! 
The  cracking  crystal  yields  ;  she  sinks,  she  dies, 
Her  head  chopt  off  from  her  lost  shoulders  flies  ; 
Pippins  she  cry'd  ;    but  death  her  voice  confounds  ; 
And  pip^  pip^  pip,  along  the  ice  resounds. 

Street  cries  have,  before  now,  been  made  the  vehicle 

for 


London  Cries.  29 

for  Political  Caricature,  notably  in  The  Pedlars^  or 
Scotch  Merchants  of  London  (1763)  attributed  to  the 
Marquis  Townshend,  which  has  particular  reference 
to  Lord  Bute.  Eliminating  the  political  satire,  we 
get  a  long  Hst  of  street  cries.  The  pedlars  march 
two  and  two,  carrying,  of  course,  their  wares  with 
them.  The  vendors  of  food  are  numerous.  One  calls 
out  "  Dumplings,  ho  ! "  another,  who  carries  a  large 
can,  wishes  to  know  "  Who'l  have  a  dip  and  a  wallop 
for  a  bawbee?"*  Then  come  "Hogs  Puddings;" 
"Wall  Fleet  Oysters;"  "New  Mackrel;"  "  Sevil 
Oranges  and  Lemons  ;  "  "  Barcelona  Philberts  ;  " 
"  Spanish  Chestnuts  ; "  "  Ripe  Turkey  Figs  ; "  "  Heart 
Cakes;"  "Fine  Potatoes;"  "New-born  Eggs,  8  a 
groat ; "  "  Bolognia  Sausages."  Miscellaneous  wants 
are  met  with  "  Weather  Cocks  for  little  Scotch  Cour- 
tiers ;"  "Bonnets  for  to  fit  English  heads  ;"  "  Laces 
all  a  halfpenny  a  piece  ; "  "  Ribbons  a  groat  a  yard  ;  " 
"  Fine  Pomatum  ; "  "  Buy  my  Wash  Balls,  Gemmen 
and  Ladies  ;  "  "  Fine  Black  Balls"  (Blacking) ;  "  Buy 
a  Flesh  Brush;"  "Buy  my  Brooms;"  "Buy  any 
Saveall  or  Oeconomy  Pans,  Ladies  ;  "  "'  Water  for  the 
Buggs  ; "  *  "  Buy  my  pack-thread  ; "  "  Hair  or  Comb- 
ings "  (for  the  manufacture  of  Wigs) ;  "  Any  Kitchen 
Stuff ;  "  "  Buy  my  Matches." 

*  See  page  125.  Addison 


30  London  Cries. 


Addison  accuses  the  London  street  criers  of  culti- 
vating the  accompHshment  of  crying  their  wares  so 
as  not  to  be  understood  ;  and  in  that  curious  medley 
of  boits-mots  and  biographical  sketches,  "  The  Olio/' 
by  Francis  Grose, — dated  1796,  but  written  .probably 
some  twenty  years  earlier, — the  author  says,  "The 
variety  of  cries  uttered  by  the  retailers  of  different 
articles  in  the  streets  of  London  make  no  inconsider- 
able part  in  its  novelty  to  strangers  and  foreigners. 
An  endeavour  to  guess  at  the  goods  they  deal  in 
through  the  medium  of  language  would  be  a  vain  at- 
tempt, as  few  of  them  convey  any  articulate  sound.  It 
is  by  their  tune  and  the  time  of  day  that  the  modern 
cries  of  London  are  to  be  discriminated." 

J.  T.  Smith  says  that  the  no  longer  heard  cry  of 
"  Holloway  Cheese-Cakes  "  was  pronounced  "y^//  my 
Teeth  Achej"  and  an  old  woman  who  sold  mutton 
dumplings  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Gravel  Lane  called, 
^'' Hot  M2itto7i  Ti'twtperyj"  while  a  third  crier,  an  old 
man  who  dealt  in  brick-dust,  used  to  shout  something 
that  sounded  exactly  like  ^'' Do  you  want  a  lick  on  the 
head?"  Another  man — a  vendor  of  chickweed — brayed 
like  an  ass  ;  while  a  stentorian  bawler,  who  was  de- 
scribed as  a  great  nuisance,  shouted  "  Cat's  Meat," 
though  he  sold  cabbages. 

Indeed,  some  of  the  cries  in  our   own  day  would 


London  Cries,  31 

appear  to  be  just  as  difficult  to  distinguish.  A  lady- 
tells  me  that  in  a  poor  district  she  regularly  visits,  the 
coal-cart  man  cries  :  "  I'm  on  the  woolsack  ! "  but 
what  he  means  is,  "  Fine  Wallsend  Coal ! "  The 
philologist  will  find  the  pronunciation  of  the  peripatetic 
Cockney  vendor  of  useful  and  amusing  trifles — almost 
invariably  penn'orths,  by  the  way — worthy  of  careful 
study.  Here  are  a  couple  of  phonetically  rendered 
examples  :  "  Bettnooks,  a  penny  fer  two,  two  frer 
penny."  [Button  hooks,  a  penny  for  two,  two  for  a 
penny.]  "  En  endy  shoo-awn  frer  penny."  [A  handy 
shoe-horn  for  a  penny.] 

Amongst  the  twelve  etched  London  Cries  "  done 
from  the  life "  by  Paul  Sandby,  in  1 766,  and  now 
scarce,  are  the  following  curious  examples  : — 

My  pretty  little  gimy  [smart]  tarter  for  a  halfpenny 
stick,  or  a  penny  stick,  or  a  stick  to  beat  your  Wives 
or  Dust  your  cloths  ! 

Memorandum  books  a  penny  a-piece  of  the  poor 
blind.     God  bless  you.     Pity  the  blind  ! 

Do  you  want  any  spoons  —  hard  metal  spoons  ? 
Have  you  any  old  brass  or  pewter  to  sell  or  change  ? 

All  fire  and  no  smoke.  A  very  good  flint  or  a  very- 
good  steel.     Do  you  want  a  good  flint  or  steel  ? 

Any  tripe,  or  neat's  foot  or  calPs-foot,  or  trotters, 
ho  !     Hearts,  Liver  or  Lights  ! 

C  The 


32  London  Cries. 

The  simplers,  or  herb-gatherers,  who  were  at  one 
time  numerous,  supplied  the  herb-shops  in  Covent 
Garden,  Fleet,  and  Newgate  Markets.  They  culled 
from  the  hedges  and  brooks  not  only  watercresses,  of 
which  London  now  annually  consumes  about  ;^  15,000 
worth,  but  dandelions,  scurvy  grass,  nettles,  bitter- 
sweet, red  valerian,  cough-grass,  feverfew,  hedge  mus- 
tard, and  a  variety  of  other  simples.  Notwithstanding 
the  greater  pungency  of  the  wild  variety,  preferred  on 
that  account,  of  late  years  watercress-growing  has 
been  profitably  followed  as  a  branch  of  market  gar- 
dening. In  third-rate  "  genteel  '^  neighbourhoods, 
where  the  family  purse  is  seldom  too  well  filled, 
"  Creeses,  young  watercreeses,"  varied  by  shrimps 
or  an  occasional  bloater,  would  appear  to  form  the 
chief  afternoon  solace.  Towards  the  end  of  the  last 
century  scurvy-grass  was  highly  esteemed  ;  and  the 
best  scurvy-grass  ale  is  said  to  have  been  sold  in 
Covent  Garden  at  the  public-house  at  the  corner  of 
Henrietta  Street. 

The  modern  dealer  in  simples,  who  for  a  few  pence 
supplies  pills  and  potions  of  a  more  or  less  harmless 
character,  calculated  for  the  cure  of  every  bodily  ail- 
ment that  afflicts  humanity,  flourishes  in  the  poorer 
districts  of  London,  and  calls  himself  a  herbalist. 
During  the  progress  ot  an  all  too  short  acquaintance- 
ship 


London  Cries. 


ship  struck  up  with  a  simpler  in  an  Essex  country  lane 
through  the  medium  of  a  particularly  fragrant  and 
soothing  herb,  the  conversation  happened  on  de- 
pression of  spirits,  and  dandelion  tea  was  declared  to 
be  an  unfailing  specific.  "You  know,  sir,  bad  spirits 
means  that  the  liver  is  out  of  order.  The  doctors  gives 
you  a  deadly  mineral  pizen,  which  they  calls  blue  pill, 
and  it  certainly  do  pizen  ^em,  but  then  you  run  the 
chance  of  being  pizened  yerself "  A  look  of  astonish- 
ment caused  him  to  continue.  "  You've  noticed  the 
'oles  in  a  sheep's  liver  after  it's  cut  up,  'aven't  you  .^ 
Well,  them  'oles  is  caused  by  slugs,  and  'uman  bein's 
is  infested  just  the  same.  So  is  awsiz  (horses),  but  they 
don't  never  take  no  blue  pill.  Catch  'em  !  The  doctors 
knows  all  about  it,  bless  yer,  but  they  don't  talk  so  plain 
as  me.  /calls  out-of-sort-ishness  '  slugs  in  the  hver,' 
and  pizens  'em  with  three  penn'rth  of  dandelion  tea, 
for  which  I  charges  thrippence.  They  calls  it  '  slug- 
gishness of  the  liver,'  and  pizens  'em  with  a 
penn'rth  of  blue  pill,  for  which  they  charges  a  guinea, 
and  as  often  as  not  they  pizens  the  patient  too."  What 
a  mine  of  "  copy "  that  simple  simpler  would  have 
proved  to  a  James  Payn  or  a  Walter  Besant ! 

The  following  at  one  time  popular  and  often  re- 
printed lines,  to  the  tune  of  "  The  Merry  Christ  Church 
Bells,''  are  from  the  Roxburgh  Collection  of  Ballads  : 

Kerens 


34  London  Cries. 

Here's  fine  rosemary,  sage  and  thyme. 
Come  and  buy  my  ground  ivy. 
Here's  fetherfew,  gilliflowers,  and  rue. 
Come  buy  my  knotted  marjorum  ho  ! 
Come  buy  my  mint,  my  fine  green  mint. 
Here's  lavender  for  your  cloaths. 
Here's  parsley  and  winter  savoiy, 
And  heartsease  which  all  do  choose. 
Here's  balm  and  hissop  and  cinquefoil, 
All  fine  herbs,  it  is  well  known. 

Let  none  despise  the  merry,  merry  wives 

Of  famous  London  town. 

Here's  pennyroyal  and  marygolds. 

Come  buy  my  nettle-tops. 

Here's  watercresses  and  scurvy  grass. 

Come  buy  my  sage  of  virtue,  ho  ! 

Come  buy  my  wormwood  and  mugwort. 

Here's  all  fine  herbs  of  every  sort, 

And  southernwood  that's  very  good, 

Dandelion  and  horseleek. 

Here's  dragon's  tongue  and  horehound. 

Let  none  despise  the  merry,  merry  wives 

Of  famous  London  town. 

Less  characteristic  is  an  old  undated  penny  ballad 
from  which  we  cull  the  following  lines  : — 

Wood 


London  Cries,  35 

Wood,  three  bundles  a  penny,  all  dried  deal  ; 
Now,  who'll  buy  a  g-ood  flint  or  steel  ? 
Buy  a  walking  stick,  a  good  ash  stump  ; 
Hearthstone,  pretty  maids,  a  penny  a  lump. 
Fine  mackrel  ;  penny  a  plateful  sprats  ; 
Dog's  meat,  marm,  to  feed  your  cats  ? 

The  cry  of  Saloop,  a  favourite  drink  of  the  young 
bloods  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  back,  conveys  no 
meaning  to  the  present  generation.  Considered  as  a 
sovereign  cure  for  drunkenness,  and  pleasant  withal, 
saloop,  first  sold  at  street  corners,  where  it  was  con- 
sumed principally  about  the  hour  of  midnight,  even- 
tually found  its  way  into  the  coffee  houses.  The 
ingredients  used  in  the  preparation  of  this  beverage 
were  of  several  kinds — sassafras,  and  plants  of  the 
genus  known  by  the  simplers  as  cuckoo-flowers,  being 
the  principal  among  them.  Saloop  finally  disappeared 
some  five  and  twenty  years  ago. 

The  watchman  cried  the  time  every  half  hour. 
In  addition  to  a  lantern  and  rattle,  he  was  armed  with 
a  stout  stick.  T.  L.  Busby,  who  in  1819  illustrated 
"  The  Costumes  of  the  Lower  Orders  of  London,"  tells 
us  that  in  March  the  watchman  began  his  rounds  at 
eight  in  the  evening,  and  finished  them  at  six  in  the 
morning.     From  April   to  September  his  hours  were 

from 


36  London  d'ies. 

from  ten  till  five  ;  and  from  November  to  the  end 
of  February,  twelve  till  seven.  During  the  darkest 
months  there  was  an  extra  watch  from  six  to  twelve, 
and  extra  patrols  of  sergeants  walked  over  the  beats 
at  intervals. 

One  of  London's  best  known  characters,  the  Water- 
man, does  not  appear  to  have  adopted  a  cry  ;  or, 
if  he  did,  no  mention  of  it  can  be  found.  But  a 
correspondent  of  Notes  and  Queries  (5th  S.  I.  May  2, 
1874)  says  :  "  I  heard  this  verse  of  a  very  old  (water- 
man's) song  from  a  very  old  gentleman  on  the  occasion 
of  the  last  overflow  of  the  Thames  : — 

"'Twopence   to   London  Bridge,   threepence  to   the 
Strand, 
Fourpence,  Sir,  to  Whitehall  Stairs,  or  else  you'll  go 
by  land.' " 

The  point  of  departure,  however,  is  not  given. 

*'  Fine  Tie  or  a  fine  Bob,  Sir  !  "  According  to  Hone, 
this  was  the  cry  in  vogue  at  a  time  when  everybody, 
old  and  young,  wore  wigs.*  The  price  of  a  common 
one  was  a  guinea,  and  every  journeyman  had  a  new 

*  "  The  best  wigs  are  those  made  in  Great  Britain  ;  they  beat 
the  French  and  German  ones  all  to  sticks."  The  Book  of 
Aphorisms,  by  a  modern  Pythagorean,  1834. 

one 


"Past  om  o'clock,  an'  a  fne   montiny / 


Loudon  Cries. 


one  every  year  ;  each  apprentice's  indenture  stipulat- 
ing, in  the  language  of  the  officials  who  are  still  wig- 
wearers,  that  his  master  should  find  him  in  "  one  good 
and  sufficient  wig,  yearly,  and  every  year,  for,  and 
during,  and  unto,  the  expiration  of  the  full  end  and 
term  of  his  apprenticeship."  A  verse  cjf  the  time  tell? 
us  : — 

Full  many  a  year  in  Middle  Row  has  this  old  barber 

been, 
Which  those  who  often  that  way  go  have  full  as  often 

seen  ; 
Bucks,  jemmies,  coxcombs,  bloods    and    beaux,   the 

lawyer,  the  divine, 
Each  to  this  reverend  tonsor  goes  to  purchase  wigs  so 

fine. 

"  Buy  my  rumps  and  burrs  ! "  is  a  cry  requiring  a 
word  of  explanation.  Before  the  skins  of  the  newly 
flayed  oxen  were  consigned  to  the  tanner,  the  inside  of 
the  ear,  called  the  burr,  and  the  fleshy  part  of  the  tail 
were  removed,  and  when  seasoned  and  baked  are  said 
to  have  formed  a  cheap  and  appetising  dish. 

Ned  Ward,  the  author  of  that  curious  work,  "  The 
London  Spy"  (1703)1  alludes  to  the  melancholy  ditty 
of  "  Hot  baked  Wardens  [pears],  and  Pippins  ; "  and, 
in  describing  the  amusements  of  Bartholomew  Fair, 

states 


London  Cries.  39 


states  that  in  leaving  a  booth  he  was  assailed  with 
"  Will  you  buy  a  Mouse  Trap  or  a  Rat  Trap  ?  Will 
you  buy  a  Cloath  Brush,  or  Hat  Brush,  or  a  Comb 
Brush  ?^'  The  writer  possesses  a  veiy  curious  old 
scenic  aquatint  print  in  the  form  of  a  fan  mount, 
representing  Bartholomew  Fair  in  1721.  The  follow- 
ing descriptive  matter  is  printed  in  the  semicircular 
space  under  the  fan  : — 

"BARTHOLOMEW  FAIR,  1721. 

This  fair  was  granted  by  Henry  the  ist,  to  one 
Rahere,  a  witty  and  pleasant  gentleman  of  his  Court, 
in  aid  and  for  the  support  of  an  Hospital,  Priory,  and 
Church,  dedicated  to  St.  Bartholomew,  which  he  built 
in  repentance  of  his  former  profligacy  and  folly.  The 
succeeding  Priors  claimed,  by  certain  Charters,  to  have 
a  Fair  every  year,  during  three  days  :  viz.,  on  the  Eve, 
the  Day,  and  on  the  Morrow  of  St.  Bartholomew.  At 
this  period  the  Clothiers  of  England,  and  drapers  of 
London,  kept  their  Booths  and  Standings  there,  and  a 
Court  of  Piepouder  was  held  daily  for  the  settlement 
of  all  Debts  and  Contracts.  About  the  year  1721, 
when  the  present  interesting  View  of  this  popular  Fair 
was  taken,  the  Drama  was  considered  of  some  import- 
ance, and  a  series  of  m.inor  although  regular  Pieces 
were  acted  in  its  various  Booths.   At  Lee  and  Harper's 

the 


40  London  Cries. 

the  Siege  of  Berthulia  is  performing,  in  which  is  intro- 
duced the  Tragedy  of  Holifernis.  Persons  of  Rank 
were  also  its  occasional  visitors,  and  the  figure  on  the 
right  is  supposed  to  be  that  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole, 
then  Prime  Minister.  Fawkes,  the  famous  conjuror, 
forms  a  conspicuous  feature,  and  is  the  only  portrait 
of  him  known  to  exist.  The  remaining  amusements 
are  not  unlike  those  of  our  day,  except  in  the  articles 
of  Hollands  and  Gin,  with  which  the  louver  orders 
were  then  accustomed  to  indulge,  unfettered  by  licence 
or  excise." 

Amongst  the  numerous  figures  represented  on  the 
fan  mount,  but  not  mentioned  by  its  pubUsher,  Mr. 
Setchel,  is  that  of  the  crier  of  apples,  whose  basket  is 
piled  high  with  tempting  fruit.  Another  woman  has 
charge  of  a  barrow  laden  with  pears  as  big  as  pump- 
kins ;  and  a  couple  of  oyster- worn  en,  whose  wares  are 
on  the  same  gigantic  scale,  are  evidently  engaged  in  a 
hot  wrangle.  Although  foreign  to  our  subject,  it  may 
be  mentioned  that  the  statement  as  to  the  portrait  of 
Fawkes  the  conjuror  being  the  only  one  known,  is 
incorrect. 

Let  not  the  ballad  singer's  shrilling  strain 
Amid  the  swarm  thy  listening  ear  detain  : 
Guard  well  thy  pocket,  for  these  syrens  stand 
To  aid  the  labours  of  the  diving  hand  ; 

Confederate 


Ye  maidef7s  and  men,  come  for  what  you  lack, 
And  buy  the  fair  Ballads  I  have  in  my  pack." 

— Pedlar's  Lamentation, 


42  London  Cines. 


Confederate  in  the  cheat,  they  draw  the  throng, 
And  Cambric  handkerchiefs  reward  the  song. 

A  state  of  things  very  graphically  delineated  in  another 
print  of  "Barthelemew  Fair"  (1739),  where  ^  ballad 
singer  is  roaring  out  a  caveat  against  cut  purses  whilst 
a  pick-pocket  is  operating  on  one  of  his  audience. 

The  old  cry  of"  Marking  Irons  "  has  died  out.  The 
letters  were  cast  in  iron,  and  sets  of  initials  were  made 
up  and  securely  fixed  in  long-handled  iron  boxes.  The 
marking  irons  were  heated  and  impressed  as  a  proof 
of  ownership. 

Hence  ladders,  bellows,  tubs,  and  pails. 
Brooms,  benches,  and  what  not, 

Just  as  the  owner's  taste  prevails. 
Have  his  initials  got. 

"  My  name  and  your  name,  your  father's  name  and 
mother's  name." 

Hone  says  :  "  I  well  remember  to  have  heard  this 
cry  when  a  boy.  The  type-seller  composed  my  own 
name  for  me,  which  I  was  thereby  enabled  to  imprint 
on  paper  with  common  writing-ink.  I  think  it  has 
become  wholly  extinct  within  the  last  ten  years." 

Amongst  later  prints  of  the  London  Cries,  none  are 
at  present  so  highly  prized  as  the  folio  set  engraved  in 

the 


London  Cries. 


the  early  part  of  this  century  by  Schiavonetti  and 
others  after  Wheatley.  Treated  in  the  sentimentally 
pretty  style  of  the  period,  they  make,  when  framed, 
wall  decorations  which  accord  well  with  the  prevailing- 
old-fashioned  furniture.  If  in  good  condition,  the  set 
of  twelve  will  now  readily  fetch  ^20  at  Christie's  ;  and 
if  coloured,  ^30  would  not  be  considered  too  high  a 
price,  though  five-and-twenty  years  ago  they  might 
easily  have  been  picked  up  for  as  many  shillings. 
Their  titles  are  as  follows  : — 

Knives,  scissors,  and  razors  to  grind  ! 
Old  chairs  to  mend  ! 
Milk  below,  maids  ! 
Strawberrys,  scarlet  strawberrys  ! 
Two  bundles  a  penny,  primroses,  two   bundles   a 
penny  ! 

Do  you  want  any  matches  ? 

Round  and  sound,  fivepence  a  pound,  Duke  cherries  ! 

Sweet  China  oranges  ! 

Hot  spiced  gingerbread,  smoking  hot ! 

Fresh  gathered  peas,  young  Hastings  ! 

A  new  love  song,  only  a  halfpenny  apiece  ! 

Turnips  and  carrots,  oh  ! 

In  connection  with  the  last  cry,  here  is  Dr.  Johnson's 
humorous  reference  thereto  : — 

If 


44  London  Cries. 

If  the  man  who  turnips  cries, 
Cry  not  when  his  father  dies, 
'Tis  a  proof  that  he  had  rather 
Have  a  turnip  than  a  father  ! 

The  modern  bootblack  with  his  "  Clean  yer  boots, 
shine  'em,  sir?"  is  the  successor  of  the  obsolete  shoe- 
black, whose  stock-in-trade  consisted  of  liquid  black- 
ing, an  old  wig  for  removing  dust  or  wet,  a  knife  for 
use  on  very  muddy  days,  and  brushes.  Towards  the 
end  of  the  last  century,  Finsbury  Square— then  an 
open  field— was  a  favourite  place  for  shoeblacks,  who 
intercepted  the  city  merchants  and  their  clerks  in  their 
daily  walks  to  and  from  their  residences  in  the  villages 
of  Islington  and  Hoxton.  At  that  time  tight  breeches 
and  shoes  were  worn  ;  and  the  shoeblack  was  careful 
not  to  smear  the  buckles  or  soil  the  fine  white  stock- 
ings of  his  patrons.  In  a  print  of  this  period  the  cry 
is  "Japan  your  shoes,  your  honour  .?''  Cake  blacking, 
introduced  by  that  famous,  but,  as  regards  the  last 
mentioned,  somewhat  antagonistic  trio.  Day,  Martin, 
and  Warren,  "  the  most  poetical  of  blacking  makers 
and  most  transparent  of  poets,"  which  was  quickly 
taken  into  general  use,  snuffed  out  the  shoeblack  ;  and 
from  about  1820  until  the  time  of  the  first  Exhibition 
in   1 85 1,  when   the   shoeblack  brigade  in  connection 

with 


London  Cities. 


45 


Fresh  and  sweet . 


46 


London  Cries. 


with  ragged  schools  was  started,  London  may  be  said 

to  have  blacked  its  own  boots. 

Bill  Sykesthe  coster- 
monger,  or  "  costard  "- 
monger,  as  he  was 
originally  called  from 
his  trade  of  selling 
apples,  now  flourishes 
under  difficulties. 
What  with  the  envious 
complaints  of  the  small 
shopkeepers  whom  he 
undersells,  and  the 
supercilious  rebuffs  of 
the  policeman  who 
keeps  him  dodging 
about  and  always  "  on 
the  move,"  Bill  has  a 
hard  time  of  it  indeed. 
Yet  he  is  distinctly 
a  benefactor  to  the 
He  changes  his  ciy  with 


Fresh  Cabbidge  !" 


poorer  portion  of  humanity, 
the  stock  on  his  barrow.  He  will  invest  one  day  in 
pine-apples,  when  there  is  a  glut  of  them — perhaps  a 
little  over-ripe — in  Pudding  Lane  ;  and  in  stentorian 
voice  will   then  make  known  his  willingness  to  ex- 

chansre 


London  Cries.  47 

change  slices  for  a  halfpenny  each,  or  a  whole  one  for 
sixpence.  On  other  days  it  may  be  apples,  or  oranges, 
fish,  vegetables,  photographs,  or  even  tortoises  ;  the 
latter  being  popularly  supposed  to  earn  a  free,  if  un- 
comfortable, passage  to  this  country  in  homeward- 
bound  ships  as  wedges  to  keep  the  cargo  from  shifting 
in  the  hold.  It  is  not  often  that  goods  intended  for 
the  thriving  shopkeeper  find  their  way  to  the  barrow 
of  the  costermonger.  Some  time  ago  amber-tipped 
cherry  or  briar-wood  pipes  were  freely  offered  and  as 
freely  bought  in  the  streets  at  a  penny  each.  Suddenly 
the  supply  stopped  ;  for  the  unfortunate  wholesale 
dealer  in  Houndsditch,  who  might  have  known  better, 
had  mistaken  "dozen"  for  "gross"  in  his  advice  ;  and 
at  6s.  6d.  per  gross  the  pipes  could  readily  be  retailed 
for  a  penny  each  ;  whereas  at  the  cost  price  of  6^.  6d. 
a  dozen,  one  shilling  ought  to  have  been  asked.  It 
seems  that  not  only  did  the  importer  imagine  that  the 
amber  mouthpieces  were  imitation,  but  Bill  Sykes  also 
thought  he  was  "doing"  the  public  when  he  announced 
them  as  real. 

In  the  present  race  of  street  criers  there  are  trick- 
sters in  a  small  way  ;  as,  for  instance,  the  well  known 
character  who  picks  up  a  living  by  selling  a  bulky- 
looking  volume  of  songs.  His  long-drawn  and  never 
varied  cry  of  "Three  un-derd  an'  fif-ty  songs  for  a 
D  penny  ! "' 


48  London  Cries. 


penny  !  "  is  really  "  Three  under  fifty  songs  for  a 
penny."  The  book  is  purposely  folded  very  loosely  so 
as  to  bulk  well ;  but  a  little  squeezing  reduces  it  to  the 
thickness  of  an  ordinary  tract.  Street  criers  are  honest 
enough,  however,  in  the  main.  If  vegetables  are 
sometimes  a  little  stale,  or  fruit  is  suspiciously  over- 
ripe, they  do  not  perhaps  feel  absolutely  called  upon 
to  mention  these  facts  ;  but  they  give  bouncing  penn'- 
orths, and  their  clients  are  generally  shrewd  enough  to 
take  good  care  of  themselves.  Petty  thieves  of  the 
area-sneak  type  use  well-known  cries  as  a  blind  while 
pursuing  their  real  calling, — match-selling  often  serv- 
ing as  an  opportunity  for  pilfering.  Blacker  sheep 
than  these  there  are  ;  but  fortunately  one  does  not 
often  come  across  them.  Walking  one  foggy  after- 
noon towards  dusk  along  the  Bays  water  Road,  I  was 
accosted  by  a  shivering  and  coatless  vagabond  who 
offered  a  tract.  Wishing  to  shake  off  so  unsavouiy  a 
companion,  I  attempted  to  cross  the  road,  but  a  few 
yards  from  the  kerb  he  barred  farther  progress 
"  Sixpence,  Sir,  only  sixpence  ;  I  must  have  sixpence  !  " 
and  as  he  spoke  he  bared  a  huge  arm  knotted  like  a 
blacksmith's.  Raising  a  fist  to  match,  he  more  than 
once  shot  it  out  unpleasantly  near,  exhibiting  every 
time  he  did  so  an  eruption  of  biceps  perfectly  appall- 
ing in  its  magnitude.  That  tract  is  at  home  some- 
where. There 


"Antique  Ballads,  sung  to  crowds   of  old, 

N:zv  cheaply  bought  at  thrice  their  weight  in  gold,^* 


50  London  Cries, 

There  are  persons  in  London  who  get  their  living 
by  manufacturing  amusing  or  useful  penny  articles, 
with  which  they  supply  the  wholesale  houses  in 
Houndsditch,  who  in  turn' find  their  customers  in  the 
hawkers  and  street  criers.  The  principal  supply,  how- 
ever, is  imported  from  the  Continent  at  prices  against 
which  English  labour  cannot  compete.  Soon  for- 
gotten, each  novelty  has  its  day,  and  is  cried  in  a 
different  manner.  Until  the  law  stepped  in  and  put 
a  stop  to  the  sale,  the  greatest  favourite  on  public 
holidays  was  the  flexible  metal  tube  containing  scented 
water,  which  was  squirted  into  the  faces  of  passers-by 
with  strict  impartiality  and  sometimes  with  blinding- 
effect. 

"  All  the  fun  of  the  fair," — a  wooden  toy  which, 
when  drawn  smartly  down  the  back  or  across  the 
shoulders,  emits  a  sound  as  if  the  garment  were  being 
rent — ranks  perhaps  second  in  the  estimation  of 
'Arry  and  Emma  Ann — she  generally  gets  called 
Emma  Ran — when  out  for  a  holiday.  "  The  Fun  of 
the  Fair"  is  always  about  on  public  holidays,  illumi- 
nations, Lord  Mayor's  day,  and  in  fact  whenever 
people  are  drawn  out  of  doors  in,  such  multitudes  that 
the  pathways  are  insufficient  to  hold  the  slowly  moving 
and  densely  packed  human  stream,  which  perforce 
slops  over  and  amicably  disputes  possession  of  the 

road 


London  Cries.  51 

road  with  the  confused  and  struggling  mass  of  vehicles 
composed  of  everything  that  goes  on  wheels.  A  real 
Malacca  cane,  the  smallest  Bible  in  the  world,  a  Punch 
and  Judy  squeaker,  a  bird  warbler,  a  gold  watch 
and  chain,  and  Scotch  bagpipes,  are,  with  numerous 
others,  at  present  popular  and  tempting  penn'orths ; 
while  the  cry  of  "  A  penny  for  shillin'  'lusterated 
magazine"— the  epitaph  on  countless  unsuccessful 
literary  ventures — seems  to  many  an  irresistible  at- 
traction. 

In  connection  with  'Arr)%  the  chief  producer  of 
street  noises,  it  may  be  questioned  whether  London  is 
now  much  better  off  than  it  was  before  the  passing 
of  the  Elizabethan  Statutes  of  the  Streets,  by  which 
citizens  were  forbidden,  under  pain  of  imprisonment, 
to  blow  a  horn  in  the  night,  or  to  whistle  after  the 
hour  of  nine  o'clock  p.m.  Sudden  outcries  in  the  still 
of  the  night,  and  the  making  of  any  affray,  or  the 
beating  of  one's  wife — the  noise  rather  than  the 
brutality  appears  to  have  been  objected  to — were  also 
specially  forbidden.  If  this  old  Act  is  still  on  the 
Statute-book,  it  is  none  the  less  a  dead  letter.  Our 
streets  are  now  paraded  by  companies  of  boys  or  half- 
grown  men  who  delight  in  punishing  us  by  means 
of  that  blatant  and  horribly  noisy  instrument  of  dis- 
sonant, unchangeable  chords,  the  German  concertina. 

In 


52  Lo7idoii  Cries. 

In  many  neighbourhoods  sleep  is  rendered,  until  the 
early  hours,  impossible  by  men  and  women  who  find 
their  principal  and  unmolested  amusement  in  the 
shouting  of  music-hall  songs,  with  an  intermittent 
accompaniment  of  shriekings.  Professional  street 
music  of  all  kinds  requires  more  stringent  regulation  ; 
and  that  produced  by  perambulating  amateurs  might 
with  advantage  be  well-nigh  prohibited  altogether. 
The  ringing  of  Church  bells  in  the  grey  of  the  morn- 
ing, and  the  early  habits  of  the  chanticleer,  are  often 
among  the  disadvantages  of  a  closely  populated 
neighbourhood.  Nor  are  these  street  noises  the  only 
nuisance  of  the  kind.  London  walls  and  partitions 
are  nearly  all  thin,  and  a  person  whose  neighbour's 
child  is  in  the  habit  of  practising  scale  exercises  or 
"  pieces,"  should  clearly  have  the  right  to  require  the 
removal  of  the  piano  a  foot  or  so  from  the  wall,  which 
would  make  all  the  difference  between  dull  annoyance 
and  distracting  torment. 

But  we  are  wandering,  and  wandering  into  a  dismal 
bye-way.  Returning  to  our  subject,  it  is  impossible 
to  be  melancholy  in  the  presence  of  the  facetious 
salesman  of  the  streets,  with  his  unfailing  native  wit. 
Hone  tells  us  of  a  mildly  humorous  character,  one 
"  Doctor  Randal,"  an  orange-seller,  who  varied  the 
description  of  his  fruit  as  circumstances  and  occa- 
sions 


London  Cries. 


D3 


sions  demanded  ;  as  "  Oratorio  oranges/'  and  so  on. 
A  jovial  rogue  whose  beat  extends  to  numerous  courts 
and  alleys  on  either  side 
of  Fleet  Street,  regularly 
and  unblushingly  cries, 
"  Stinking  Shrimps,'' 
and  by  way  of  addenda, 
"  Lor,  ''ow  they  do  stink 
to-day,  to  be  sure  ! " 
His  little  joke  is  almost 
as  much  relished  as  his 
shrimps  and  bloaters, 
and  they  appear  to  be 
always  of  the  freshest. 
Were  it  not  that  insuf- 
ficient clothing  and  an 
empty  stomach  are 
hardly  conducive  there- 
to, the  winter  cry  so 
generally  heard  after  a 
fall    of    snow,   "  Sweep 

yer  door  away,  mum?"  might  fairly  be  credited  to 
an  attempt  at  facetiousness  under  difficulties,  while 
the  grave  earnestness  of  the  mirth-provoking  cry  of 
the  Cockney  boot-lace  man,  "  Lice,  lice,  penny  a 
pair  boot-lice  ! "  is   strong  evidence  that  he  has   no 

thought 


Stinking  Fish 


54  London  Cries. 


thought  beyond  turning  the  largest  possible  number 
of  honest  pennies  in  the  shortest  possible  space  of 
time. 

A  search  in  our  collection  of  books  and  ballads  for 
London  Cries,  humorous  in  themselves,  discovers  but 
two, — 

"Jaw- work,  up  and  under  jaw- work,  a  whole  pot  for 
a  halfpenny,  hazel-nuts  !  " 
and — 

"  New  laid  eggs,  eight  a  groat — crack  'em  and  try 
'em  ! " 

A  somewhat  ghastly  form  of  facetiousness  was  a 
favourite  one  with  a  curious  City  character,  now 
defunct.  He  was  a  Jew  who  sold  a  nameless  toy — a 
dried  pea  loose  in  a  pill  box,  which  was  fastened  to  a 
horse-hair,  and  on  being  violently  twirled,  emitted  a 
vibratory  hum  that  could  be  heard  for  some  dis- 
tance. Unless  his  unvarying  cry,  "  On'y  a  'a'penny," 
brought  buyers  to  the  fore,  he  gave  vent  to  frequent 
explosions  of  strange  and  impious  language,  which 
never  failed  to  provoke  the  merriment  of  the 
passer-by. 

Among  the  many  living  City  characters  is  the  man 
— from  his  burr  evidently  a  Northumbrian — who  sells 
boot  laces.  His  cry  is,  "  Boot  laces — AND  the  boot 
laces."    This  man  also  has  a  temper.      If  sales  are 

slow 


New  la  id  es^^s,  eigJit  a  groat — crack  'em  and  try  'em  ! ' 


56  L  ondon  Cries. 

slow,  as  they  not  uncommonly  are,  his  cry  culminates 
in  a  storm  of  muttered  abuse  ;  after  which  mental 
refreshment  he  calmly  proceeds  as  before,  "  The  boot 
laces— AND  the  boot  laces."  Most  of  us  know  by 
sight  the  penny  Jack-in-the-box  seller,  whose  cry,  as 
Jack  pops  up,  on  the  spring  of  the  lid  being  released, 
is  a  peculiar  double  squeak,  emitted  without  move- 
ment of  the  lips.  The  cry  is  supposed  to  belong  to 
the  internal  economy  of  the  toy,  and  to  be  a  part  of 
the  penn'orth  ;  but,  alas  !  Jack,  once  out  of  the  hands 
of  his  music-master,  is  voiceless.  The  numerous 
street  sellers  of  pipe  and  cigar  lights  must  have  a 
hard  time  of  it.  Following  the  lucifer  match,  with  its 
attendant  choking  sulphurous  fumes,  came  the  evil- 
smelling,  thick,  red-tipped,  brown  paper  slip  charged 
with  saltpetre,  so  that  it  should  smoulder  without 
flaming.  These  slips,  in  shape  something  like  a  row 
of  papered  pins,  were  divided  half  through  and  torn 
off  as  required.  Like  the  brimstone  match  which 
preceded,  and  the  Vesuvian  which  followed,  these 
lights  (which  were  sold  in  the  shops  at  a  penny  a  box, 
but  in  the  streets  at  two  and  sometimes  three  boxes 
for  the  same  sum)  utterly  spoilt  the  flavour  of  a  cigar ; 
htnce  the  superiority  of  the  now  dominant  wax  vestas. 
The  matches  of  a  still  earlier  period  were  long  slips 
of  dry  Avood  smeared  at  either  end  with  brimstone. 

They 


/?0H-  IcLTl 


Q.-n  o'j-cn      Del  in    /8/? 

• '  Letters  for  post 


58  London  Cries. 


They  would  neither  "  hght  only  on  the  box,"  nor  off 
it,  unless  aided  by  the  uncertain  and  always  trouble- 
some flint,  steel,  and  tinder,  or  the  direct  application 
of  flame.  "Clean  yer  pipe;  pipe-cleaner,  a  penny  for 
two  ! "  is  a  cry  seldom  absent  from  the  streets.  The 
pipe-cleaner  is  a  thin,  flexible,  double-twisted  wire, 
about  a  foot  long,  with  short  bristles  interwoven  at 
one  end,  and  now,  "  when  everybody  smokes  who 
doesn't,''  the  seller  is  sure  of  a  more  or  less  constant 
trade. 

The  buyers  of  the  so-called  penny  ices  sold  in  the 
London  streets  during  the  summer  months  are  charged 
only  a  halfpenny  ;  and  the  numerous  vendors,  usually 
Italians,  need  no  cry  ;  for  the  street  ga7ni?ts  and 
errand  boys  buzz  around  their  barrows  like  flies  about 
a  sugar  barrel.  For  obvious  reasons,  spoons  are  not 
lent.  The  soft  and  half-frozen  delicacy  is  consumed 
by  the  combined  aid  of  tongue  and  fingers.  Parti- 
coloured Neapolitan  ices,  vended  by  unmistakable 
natives  of  Whitechapel  or  the  New  Cut,  whose  curious 
cry  of  "  'Okey  Pokey  "  originated  no  one  knov/s  how, 
have  lately  appeared  in  the  streets.  Hokey  Pokey  is 
of  a  firmer  make  and  probably  stiffer  material  than 
the  penny  ice  of  the  Italians,  which  it  rivals  in  public 
favour;  and  it  is  built  up  of  variously  flavoured  layers. 
Sold    in    halfpenny   and    also    penny   paper-covered 

squares. 


Si 


m^i 


i^--;;  '13 


Knives  and  Scissors  to  Grind  \ 


6o  London  Cr^ 


les. 


squares,  kept  until  wanted  in  a  circular  metal  refriger- 
ating pot  surrounded  by  broken  ice,  Hokey  Pokey  has 
the  advantage  over  its  rival  eaten  from  glasses,  inas- 
much as  it  can  be  carried  away  by  the  purchaser 
and  consumed  at  leisure.  Besides  being  variously 
flavoured,  Hokey  Pokey  is  dreadfully  sweet,  dread- 
fully cold,  and  hard  as  a  brick.  It  is  whispered  that 
the  not  unwholesome  Swede  turnip,  crushed  into 
pulp,  has  been  known  to  form  its  base,  in  heu  of  more 
expensive  supplies  from  the  cow,  whose  complex 
elaboration  of  cream  from  turnips  is  thus  uncere- 
moniously abridged. 

Another  summer  cry  recalls  to  memory  a  species  of 
house  decoration,  which  we  may  hope  is  rapidly 
)3ecoming  a  thing  of  the  past.  "  Ornaments  for  yer 
fire  stoves,"  are  usually  either  cream-tinted  willow 
shavings,  brightened  by  the  interspersion  of  a  few 
gold  threads,  or  mats  thickly  covered  with  rose-shaped 
bows  and  streamers  of  gaily-coloured  tissue  papers. 
Something  more  ornate,  and  not  always  in  better 
taste,  is  now  the  fashion  ;  the  trade  therefore  has 
found  its  way  from  the  streets  to  the  shops,  and  the 
old  cry,  "  Ornaments  for  yer  fire  stoves,"  is  likely  to 
be  seldomer  heard. 

Many  of  the  old  cries,  dying  out  elsewhere,  may 
still  be  familiar,  however,  in  the  back  streets  of  second 

and 


London  Cries. 


6i 


■ '  W  Clo  /  • 


62 


London  C> 


vies. 


and 


repr 


third  rate  neighbourhoods.  The  noisy  bell  *  of 
the  privileged  muffin-man  can 
hardly  be  counted  ;  but  "dust,  O," 
— the  dustman's  bell  is  almost  a 
thing  of  the  past — "knives  and 
scissors,"  —  pronounced  sitthers 
— "to  grind,"  "chairs  to  mend" 
"cat's  [and  dawg's  meat,"  the 
snapped-off  short  "  o'  clo"  of  the 
Jewish  dealer  in  left-off  garments, 
"  fine  warnuts,  penny  for  ten,  all 
cracked,"  "  chestnuts  all  'ot,"  "  fine 
ripe  strawberries,"  "  rabbit  or  'air 
skins,"  "fine  biggaroon  cherries," 
"  fine  oranges,  a  penny  for  three," 
and  many  others,  are  still  shouted 
in  due  season  by  leathern-lunged 
itinerant  traders.  The  "  O'  clo " 
man  is  nearly  always  historically 

esented,  as   in  the  Catnach  illustration,  wearing 


Dust,  0. 


*  Francis  Grose  tells  us,  in  1796,  that  some  trades  have  from 
time  immemorial  invoked  musical  assistance,— such  as  those  of 
pie,  post,  and  dust  men,  who  ring  a  bell. 
My  bell  I  keep  ringing 
And  walk  about  merrily  singing 
My  muffins. 

several 


^  -, 


-v^^^. 


1  Pf  '■\'^\  '■,•  i^'l 


E  "  CV/^'j-  and  Dog's  Meat!" 


64  London  Cries. 

several  hats  ;  but,  though  he  may  often  be  met  with 
more  than  one  in  his  possession,  he  is  now  seldom 
seen  with  more  than  one  on  his  head.  Calling  the 
price  before  the  quantity,  though  quite  a  recent  in- 
novation, or  more  probably  the  revival  of  an  old  style, 
is  almost  universal.  The  cry  of  "  Fine  wamuts,  ten 
a  penny,"  is  now  "  A  penny  for  ten,  fine  warnuts,"  or 
"  A  penny  for  'arf  a  score,  fine  wamuts." 

The  cat's  meat  man  has  never,  like  some  of  his 
colleagues,  aspired  to  music,  but  apparently  confines 
himself  to  the  one  strident  monosyllable.  It  has 
been  stated,  by  the  way,  that  the  London  cats,  of 
which  it  seems  there  are  at  present  some  350,000, 
annually  consume  ;^  100,000  worth  of  boiled  horse. 
Daintily  presented  on  a  skewer,  pussy's  meat  is  eaten 
without  salt ;  but,  being  impossible  of  verification,  the 
statistics  presented  in  the  preceding  sentence  may  be 
taken  with  a  grain. 

"  Soot "  or  "  Sweep,  ho  ! "  The  sweep,  accompanied 
by  two  or  three  thinly- clad,  half-starved,  and  generally 
badly-treated  apprentices,  who  ascended  the  chimneys 
and  acted  as  human  brushes,  turned  out  in  old 
times  long  before  daylight.  It  was  owing  to  the  exer- 
tions of  the  philanthropist,  Mr.  Jonas  Hanway,  and 
before  the  invention  of  the  jointed  chimney  sweeping 
machine,  that  an  Act  was  passed  at  the  beginning  of 

this 


London  Cries. 


^    CO     cd    cj   ^ 


•U      2^  nj  O 

1 1  "i  S  I 

•-     o     1^  ^-  ■<-» 

biH  m    S  §  fe 

Oh  ^ 


London  Cries. 


67 


this  century,  provid- 
ing that  every  chim- 
ney-sweeper's appren- 
tice should  wear  a 
brass  plate  in  front 
of  his  cap,  with  the 
name  and  abode  of 
his  master  engraved 
thereon.  The  boys 
were  accustomed  to 
beg  for  food  and 
money  in  the  streets  ; 
but  by  means  of  the 
badges,  the  masters 
were  traced,  and  an 
improvement  in  the 
general  condition  of 
the  apprentices  fol- 
lowed.    But  the  early 

morning  is  still  disturbed  by  the  long-drawn  cry, 
"  Sw-e-e-p."'  This,  and  the  not  unmusical  "ow-00/' 
of  the  jodeling  milkman — all  that  is  left  of  "  milk 
below  maids," — the  London  milk-maids  are  usually 
strongly-built  Irish  or  Welsh  girls — and  the  tardier 
and  rather  too  infrequent  "  dust-o  "  are  amongst  the 
few  unsuppressed  Cries  of  London-town.      They  are 

tolerated 


Sw-e-e-, 


68 


London  Cries. 


tolerated  and  continued  be- 
cause they  are  convenient, 
and  from  a  vague  sense  of 
prescriptive  right  dear  to  the 
heart  of  an  Englishman. 

Until  quite  recently,  the 
flower  girls  at  the  Royal  Ex- 
change— decent  and  well- 
behaved  Irishwomen  who 
work  hard  for  an  honest 
living— were  badgered  and 
driven  about  by  the  police. 
They  are  now  allovv-ed  to 
collect  and  pursue  their  call- 
ing in  peace  by  the  Wel- 
lington statue,  where  their 
cry,  "  Buy  a  flower,  sir,"  is 
heard,  whatever  the  wea- 
ther, all  the  year  round. 
"Speshill  'dishun,  'orrible  railway  haccident,"  the  out- 
come of  an  advanced  civilization,  is  a  cry  that  was  un- 
known to  our  forefathers.  Our  forebears  had  often  to 
pay  a  shilling  for  a  newspaper,  and  the  newsman  made 
known  his  progress  through  the  streets  by  sound  of 
tin  trumpet  :  as  shown  in  Rowlandson's  graphic  illus- 
tration, a  copy  of  the  newspaper  was  carried  in  the  hat- 
band 


Ow-c 


' '  Great  News  ! ' 


70  London  Cries. 

band.  "  Cgar  lights,  'ere  y'ar,  sir ;  'apenny  a  box," 
and  "  Taters  all  'ot,"  also'belong  to  the  modern  school 
of  London  Cries  ;  while  the  piano-organ  is  a  fresh 
infliction  in  connection  with  the  new  order  of  street 
noises.  And  although  a  sort  of  portable  penthouse 
was  used  in  remote  times  for  screening  from  heat  and 
rain,  the  ribbed  and  collapsible  descendant  thereof  did 
not  come  into  general  use^much  before  the  opening  of 
the  present  century  ;  hence  the  cry,  "Any  umbrellas- 
termend,"  may  properly  be  classed  as  a  modern 
one. 

In  the  crowded  streets  of  modern  London  the 
loudest  and  most  persistent  cry  is  that  of  the  omnibus 
conductor — "Benk,"  "  Chairin'  Krauss,"  "Pic'dilly"; 
or  it  may  be,  "  Full  inside,"  or  "  'Igher  up  "  ;  to  which 
the  cabman's  low-pitched  and  persuasive  ''Keb,  sir?" 
— he  is  afraid  to  ply  [too  openly  for  ^hire — plays  an 
indifferent  second.  Judging  from  Rowlandson's  illus- 
tration, his  predecessor  the  hackney  coachman  shared 
cabby's  sometimes  too  pointedly  worded  objection  to  a 
strictly  legal  fare. 

The  "  under-street "  Cries  heard  in  our  own  time  at 
the  various  stations  on  the  railway  enveloping  London, 
in  what  by  courtesy  is  termed  a  circle — the  true  shape 
would  puzzle  a  mathematician  to  define— form  an 
interesting  study.     While  a  good  many  of  the  porters 

are 


"  Wot  d'yer  call  that  f  ' 


/- 


London  Cries. 


are  recruited  from  the  country,  it  is  a  curious  fact 
that  in  calling  the  names  of  the  various  "  sty- 
shuns  "  they  mostly  settle  down — perhaps  from  force 
of  association  "downt-tcher-now"— into  one  dead  level 
of  Cockney  pronunciation. 

As  one  seldom  realizes  that  there  is  anything  wrong 
with  one's  own  way  of  speaking,  pure-bred  Cockneys 
may  be  expected  to  quarrel  with  the  phonetic  rendering 
given  ;  however,  as  Dr.  James  Cantlie,  in  his  interest- 
ing and  recently  published  "  Degeneration  amongst 
Londoners,"  *  tells  us  that  a  pure-bred  Cockney  is  a 
iwa  avis  indeed,  the  quarrelsomely  inclined  may  not 
be  numerous,  and  they  may  be  reminded  that  the 
writer  is  not  alone  in  his  ideas  as  to  Cockney  pro- 
nunciation. Appended  to  Du  Maurier's  wonderfully 
powerful  picture  of  "  The  Steam  Launch  in  Venice  " 
(Punch's  Almanac,  1882),  is  the  following  wording  : — 

'Andsome  ^Arriet :  "  Ow  my  !  if  it  'yn't  that  bloom- 
in'  old  Temple  Bar,  as  they  did  aw'y  with  out  o'  Fleet 
Street!," 

M?'.  Belleville  {referring  to  Guide-book) :  "  No,  it 
'yn't !     It's  the  fymous  Bridge  o'  Sighs,  as  Byron 

*"  "Degeneration  amongst  Londoners."  By  James  Cantlie, 
M.A.,  M.B.,  F.R.C.S.  One  Shilling.  The  Leadenhall  Press, 
Iv.C. 

went 


London  Cries.  J^ 


went  and  stood  on  ;  'im  as  wrote  Our  Boys,  yer 
l:uow  !  " 

'Andsoine  'Arriet:  "Well,  I  never  !  It  'yn't  much 
of  a  Size,  any'ow  !  " 

Mr.  Belleville:  '"Ear  !  'ear  !     Fustryte  !  " 

This  paragraph  is  from  the  London  Globe  of  January 
26th,  1885  :  "  Spelling  reformers  take  notice.  The  Eng- 
lish alphabet — diphthongs  and  all — does  not  contain 
any  letters  which,  singly  or  in  combination,  can  convey 
with  accuracy  the  pronunciation  given  by  the  news- 
boys to  the  cry,  '  A-blowin'  up  of  the  'Ouses  of  Parlia- 
ment ! '  that  rent  the  air  on  Saturday.  The  word 
'  blowin' '  is  pronounced  as  if  the  chief  vowel  sound 
were  something  like  '  ough '  in  '  bough  '  ;  and  even 
then  an  '  e '  and  a  '  y '  ought  to  be  got  in  some- 
where." 

There  are  twenty-seven  stations  on  the  London 
Inner  Circle  Railway — owned  by  two  companies,  the 
Metropolitan  and  District— and  the  name  of  one  only 
— Gower  Street — is  usually  pronounced  by  "  thet 
tchung  men,"  the  railway  porter,  as  other  people  pro- 
nounce it.  ["Emma  Smith,"*  while  not  a  main  line 
station,  may  be  cited  here  simply  as  a  good  example 

*  Hammersmith, 

of 


74 


London  Cries. 


of  Cockney,  for  'Arry  and  'Arriet  are  quite  incapable 
of  any  other  verbal  rendering.]  They  are  cried  as 
follows  : — 


"  South  Kenzint'nn."' 

"  Glawster  Rowd." 
(owd  as  in  "  loud.") 

"  I  Street,  Kenzint'nn." 

"Nottin'  IllGite.'*' 
(ite  as  in  "flight.") 

"  Queen's     Rowd,     Bize- 
water." 
(ize  as  in  "size.") 

"Pride     Street,    Peddin- 
ten." 

"  Edge-wer  Rowd." 

(by  common  consent  the  Cock- 
ney refrains  from  saying 
"  H edge-wer.") 

"  Biker  Street." 

"  Portland  Rowd." 

"  Gower  Street." 

"  King's  Krauss." 

(Often  abbreviated  to  "  'ng's 
Krauss.") 

"  Ferrindcn  Street." 

Country     cousins     may 


"  Oldersgit  Street." 
(no  preliminary  "  H.") 

"  Mawgit  Street." 

"  Bish-er-git." 

"  Ol'git." 

"  Mark  Line." 

"  Monneym'nt." 

"  Kennun  Street." 

'•'  Menshun  Ouse." 

"  Bleckfriars." 

"  Tempull." 

("  pull-pull-Tempulh") 

"  Chairin'  Krauss." 

"  Wes'minster." 

(One  sometimes  hears  "  Wes'- 

minister"  :  a  provincialism.) 

"  S'n  Jimes-iz  Pawk." 
(ime  as  in  "  time.") 

"  A^ictaw-ia." 

"  Slown  Square." 

(own  as  in  "  town.") 

be     reminded     that     the 
guiding 


Loiidon  Cries. 


75 


TICKETS 
MARKED 


THIS  WAY 


guiding  letters  |  or  Q  so  boldly  marked  on  the  tickets 
issued  on  the  London  underground 
railway,  and,  in  the  brightest  ver- 
milion,  as  conspicuously  painted  up 
in  the  various  stations,  do  not  mean 
"  Inner"  or  "  Outer"  Circle,  but  the 
inner  and  outer  lines  of  rails  of  the 
Inner  Circle  Railway.  Though  sanc- 
tioned by  Parliament  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  the  so-called 
Outer  Circle  Railway  is  still  incom- 
plete, its  present  form  being  that  of  a  horse-shoe,  with 
termini  at  Broad  Street  and  Mansion  House,  and 
some  of  its  principal  stations  at  Dalston,  Willesden, 
and  Addison  Road,  Kensington. 

It  has  before  been  said  that  every- 
thing that  could  be  carried  has,  at 
some  time  or  other,  been  sold  in  the 

O  streets  ;  and  it  follows  that  an 
approximately  complete  list  of 
London  Cries  would  reach  a  very 
large  total.  From  its  mere  length 
and  sameness  such  a  list  would 
moreover  be  apt  to  weary  the  reader  ; 
for  not  all  cries  have  the  interest  of  a  traditional 
phrase  or  intonation  which  gives  notice  of  the  nature 

of 


tickets! 

MARKED 


THIS  WAY 


76 


London  O 


'les. 


of  the  wares,  even  when  the  words  are  rendered 
unintelHgible  by  the  necessity  of  vociferation.  But 
a  few  of  the  most  constant  and  curious  cries  may  be 
interesting  to  note. 


""Hot  Spice  Gingerbnad ! 


*'^Tis  all  hot,  nice  fmoaking  hoi 
You'll  hear  his  daily  ciy  ; 

But  if  you  won't  believe,  you  fot 
You  need  but  taste  and  try 


''Old 


London  Cries. 


77 


Old  Cloathsr' 


Coats  or  preeches  do  you  vant  ? 

Or  puckles  for  your  fhoes  ? 
Vatches  too  me  can  fupply  :  — 

Me  monies  von't  refufe. 


'Kmic. 


78 

London  Cries. 

» 

''Knives  to  Gri7id!'' 

Youn^  gentlemen  attend  my  cry, 
And  bring  forth  all  your  Knives  ; 

The  barbers  Razors  too  I  grind  ; 
Bring  out  your  Sciffars,  wives. 


'  Cabbas^cj 


London  Cries, 


79 


"  Cabbages  O  !    Turnips 


With  mutton  we  nice  turnips  eat ; 

Beef  and  carrots  never  cloy ; 
Cabbage  comes  up  with  Summer  meat, 

With  winter  nice  favoy. 


Holloway 


8o 


London  Cries. 


Holloway  cheese  cakes  ! 

Large  silvei*  eels,  a  groat  a  pound,  live  eels  ! 

Any  New  River  water,  water  here  ? 

Buy  a  rope  of  onions,  oh  ? 


Sand  'O.'" 


Buy  a  goose  ? 

Any  bellows  to  mend  ? 

Who's  for  a  mutton  pie   or  an  eel  pie  ? 

Who  buys  my  roasting  jacks  ? 

Sand,*ho  !  buy  my  nice  white  sand,  ho  ! 


Buy 


London  Cries. 


8r 


^0  ^- 


c 


^g-      -^~-^£^ 


Buy  a  Live  Goose  f 


82 


London  Cries. 


Buy  my  firestone  ? 

Roasted  pippins,  piping  hot ! 


Chcr/ics,   O  /   rtjc  i lurries,    (J 


A  whole  market  hand  for  a  halfpenny — young  ra- 
dishes, ho  ! 
Sw-e-cp  ! 

Brick 


COVENT    GaR^FN. 


lune  Stra7vb:rnes  /" 


84  London   Cries. 

Brick  dust,  to-day  ? 

Door  mats,  want  ? 

Hot  rolls  ! 

Rhubarb  ! 

Buy  any  clove- water  ? 

Buy  a  horn-book  ? 

Quick  ilivifig)  periwinkles  ! 

Sheep's  trotters,  hot  ! 

Songs,  three  yards  a  penny  ! 

Southernwood  that's  very  good  ! 

Cherries  O  !  ripe  cherries  O  ! 

Cat's  and  dog's  meat  ! 

Samphire  ! 

All  a-growin',  all  a-blowin'. 

Lilly  white  mussels,  penny  a  quart  I 

New  Yorkshire  muffins  ! 

Oysters,  twelvepence  a  peck  ! 

Rue,  sage,  and  mint,  farthing  a  bunch 

Tuppence  a  hundred,  cockles  ! 

Sweet  violets,  a  penny  a  bunch  ! 

Brave  Windsor  beans  ! 

Buy  my  mops,  my  good  wool  mops  ! 

Buy  a  linnet  or  a  goldfinch  ? 

Knives,  combs,  and  inkhornes  ! 

Six  bunches  a  penny,  sweet  lavender  .' 

New-laid  eggs,  eight  a  groat  ! 


An^ 


London  Cries,  85 


Sweet  Lavender  !" 


S6  London  Cries. 

Any  wood  ? 

Hot  peas  ! 

Hot  cross  buns  ! 

Buy  a  broom  ? 

Old  chairs  to  mend  ! 

Young  lambs  to  sell  ! 

Tiddy  diddy  doll  ! 

Hearth-stone  ! 

Buy  my  nice  drops,  twenty  a  penny,  peppermint 
drops  ! 

Any  earthen  ware,  plates,  dishes,  or  jugs,  to-day, — 
any  clothes  to  exchange.  Madam  ? 

Holly  O,  Mistletoe  ! 

Buy  my  windmills  for  a  ha'penny  a  piece  !  [a  cliild's 
toy.] 

Nice  Yorkshire  cakes  ! 

Buy  my  matches,  maids,  my  nice  small  pointed 
matches  ! 

Come,  buy  my  fine  myrtles  and  roses  ! 

Buy  a  mop  or  a  broom  ? 

Hot  rolls  ! 

Will  you  buy  a  Beau-pot  ? 

Probably  of  Norman-French  origin,  the  term  "  beau- 
pot"  is  still  in  use  in  out-of-the-way  country  districts, 
to  signify  a  posy  or  nosegay,  in  which  sweet-smelling 
herbs  and    flowers,   as    rosemary,  sweet-briar,  balm, 

roses, 


London  Cries. 


87 


ilPlii      .,:;#»  Ill 


Chairs  to  mend  !' 


88 


London  Cries. 


roses,    carnations,    violets,    wall-flowers,    mignonette, 
sweet-William,  and  others  that  we  are  now  pleased  to 


^iiC  a  oioVJiu 


designate  "  old  fashioned,"  would  naturally  predomi- 
nate. 

Come  buy  my  sweet-briar  ! 

Any 


v-A  ^ 


■t"*"*"'': 

..>vis:s? 

*    ••vi=^:-.vP-"^ 

;.      ^<i:^T-.iu 

i, ..'... 

I.  .•.-.-. 

'T'-f.mm^^ 

J..•■•.:v.^^v=•x 

•;......■.. 

)     :;v^^;^::Si^ 

: J'A'.'t'-'  V---.- 

''Any  Earthen    Ware;   buy  a  jiij;  or  a  tea  fot?' 


90 


London  Cries. 


Any  old  flint  glass  or    broken  bottles  for  a    poor 
woman  to-day  ? 


Fresh  Oysters  !  pe7iny  a  lot . 


Sweet  primroses,  four  bunches  a  penny,''primroses  ! 
Black  and  white  heart  cherries,  twopence  a  pound, 
full  weight,  all  round  and  sound  ! 

Fine 


^i^^tPi:'!  I 


"'Buy  my  Sweet  Roses?' 


92 


London  Cries, 


Fine  ripe  duke  cherries,  a  ha'penny  a  stick  and  a 
penny  a  stick,  ripe  duke  cherries  I 

Shrimps  like  prawns,  a  ha'penny  a  pot  ! 
Green  hastings  ! 


"I'l/ic  large  Cucumbers  !" 

Hot  pudding  ! 
Pots  and  kettles  to  mend  ! 
'Ere's  yer  toys  for  girls  an'  boys  ! 
Brick-dust  was  carried  on  the  backs  of  asses  and 
sold  for  knife-cleaning  purposes  at  a  penny  a  quart. 

The 


yer  toys  Jor  girls  an    boys 


94  Loiido7i  Cities. 

The  bellows-mender,  who  sometimes  also  followed 
the  trade  of  a  tinker,  carried  his  tools  and  apparatus 
buckled  in  a  leathern  bag  at  his  back,  and  practised 
his  profession  in  any  convenient  corner  of  the  street. 

Door-mats  of  all  shapes  were  made  of  rushes  or 
rope,  and  were  sold  at  from  sixpence  to  several  shil- 
lings each. 

The  earliest  green  pea  brought  to  the  London 
market — a  dwarf  variety — was  distinguished  by  the 
name  of  Hasteds,  Hastens,  Hastins,  or  Hastings,  and 
was  succeeded  by  the  Hotspur.  The  name  of  Hast- 
ings was,  however,  indiscriminately  given  to  all  peas 
sold  in  the  streets,  and  the  cry  of  "  green  Hastings '' 
was  heard  in  every  street  and  alley  until  peas  went 
out  of  season. 

The  crier  of  hair  brooms,  who  usually  travelled  with 
a  cart,  carried  a  supply  of  brushes,  sieves,  clothes- 
horses,  lines,  and  general  turnery. 

All  cleanly  folk  must  like  my  ware. 

For  wood  is  sweet  and  clean  ; 

Time  was  when  platters  served  Lord  l^.Iayor 

And,  as  I've  heard,  a  Queen. 

His  cry  took  the  form  of  the  traditional  tune  ''  Buy 
a  broom,"  which  may  even  now  be  occasionally  heard 
—perhaps  the  last  survival  of  a  street  trade  tune — 

taken 


"  Curds  and  Whey!' 
G 


96  London  Cries. 

taken  up  separately  or  in  fitful  chorus  by  the  men  and 
women  of  a  travelling  store.  The  Flemish  "  Buy  a 
Broom  "  criers,  whose  trade  is  gone,  generally  went  in 
couples  or  threes.  Their  figures  are  described  by 
Hone  as  exactly  miniatured  in  the  unpainted  wooden 
doll,  shaped  the  same  before  and  behind,  and  sold  in 
the  toy  shops  for  the  aniusement  of  the  little  ones.  In 
the  comedy  of  "  The  Three  Ladies  of  London,"  printed 
in  quarto  in  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  (a.d.  1584),  is 
this  passage  : — 

''  Enter  Conscience  with  brooms  at  her  back,  sing- 
ing as  follows  : — 

New  brooms,  green  brooms,  will  you  buy  any? 
IMaydens  come  quickly,  let  me  take  a  penny." 

Hot  rolls,  which  were  sold  at  one  and  two  a  penny, 
were  carried  during  the  summer  months  between  the 
hours  of  8  and  9  in  the  morning,  and  from  4  to  6  in 
the  afternoon. 

Let  Fame  puff  her  trumpet,  for  muffin  and  crumpet, 
They  cannot  compare  with  my  dainty  hot  rolls  ; 

When  mornings  are  chilly,  sweet  Fanny,  young  Billy, 
Your  hearts  they  will  comfort,  my  gay  little  souls. 

Muffins  and  crumpets  were  then,  as  now,  principally 
cried  during  the  winter  months. 

Hot 


London  Cries.  97 


Hot  pudding,  sweet,  heavy  and  indigestible,  was 
sold  in  halfpenny  slabs. 

Who  wants  some  pudding  nice  and  hot  ! 

'Tis  now  the  time  to  try  it  ; 
Just  taken  from  the  smoking  pot. 

And  taste  before  you  buy  it. 

The  cry  "  One-a-penny,  two-a-penny,  hot  CROSS 
BUNS  !"  which, — now  never  heard  from  the  sellers 
on  Good  Friday, — is  still  part  of  a  child's  game,  re- 
mains as  one  of  the  best  instances  of  Enghsh  quan- 
titative metre,  being  repeated  in  measured  time,  and 
not  merely  by  the  ordinary  accent.  The  rhubarb- 
selling  Turk,  who  appeared  in  turban,  trousers,  and 
— what  was  then  almost  unknown  amongst  civilians 
— moustaches,  was,  fifty  years  ago  or  more,  a  well 
known  character  in  the  metropolis. 

Sand  was  generally  used  in  London,  not  only  for 
cleaning  kitchen  utensils,  but  for  sprinkling  over  un- 
carpeted  floors  as  a  protection  against  dirty  footsteps. 
It  was  sold  by  measure— red  sand,  twopence  half- 
penny, and  white  a  penny  farthing  per  peck.  The 
very  melodious  catch,  "  White  Sand  and  Grey  Sand, 
Who'll  buy  my  White  Sand  !"  was  evidently  harmo- 
nized on  the  sand-seller's  traditional  tune. 

"  Buy  a  bill  of  the  play  !  "     In  the  time  of  our  great 

grandfathers, 


98  London  Cries. 


grandfathers,  there  were  no  scented  programmes,  and 
the  pecuHar  odour  of  the  play-bills  was  not  due  to  the 
skill  of  a  Rimmel.  Vilely  printed  with  the  stickiest  of 
ink,  on  the  commonest  of  paper,  they  were  disposed 
of  both  in  and  outside  the  theatre  by  orange-women, 
Avho  would  give  one  to  a  purchaser  of  half  a  dozen 
oranges  or  so.  In  Hogarth's  inimitably  amusing  and 
characteristic  print  of  The  Laughing  Audience^  a 
couple  of  robustly  built  orange- women  are  contending, 
with  well-filled  baskets,  for  the  favour  of  a  bewigged 
beau  of  the  period,  who  appears  likely  to  become  an 
easy  victim  to  their  persuasions. 

"  Knives  to  grind  "  is  still  occasionally  heard,  and 
the  grinder's  barrow  {vide  that  depicted  in  Rowland- 
son's  illustration  on  p.  59),  is  much  the  same  as  it  was 
a  hundred  years  ago.  At  the  beginning  of  the  century 
the  charge  for  grinding  and  setting  scissors  was  a 
penny  or  twopence  a  pair  ;  penknives  a  penny  a  blade, 
and  table-knives  one  and  sixpence  and  two  shillings  a 
dozen. 

Rabbits  were  carried  about  the  streets  suspended 
at  either  end  of  a  pole  which  rested  on  the  shoulder. 

The  edible  marine  herb  samphire,  immortalized  in 
connection  with  "Shakespeare's  Cliff"  at  Dover,  was 
at  one  time  regularly  culled  and  as  regularly  eaten. 

The  once  familiar  cry  of  "  Green  rushes  O  1 "  is  pre- 
served 


Lo7idon  Cries, 


99 


C/ufries,  foi/rpe72ce  a  found !' 


I  CO  London  Cries. 

served  only  in  verse.  In  Queen  Elizabeth's  time  the 
floors  of  churches  as  well  as  private  houses  were  car- 
peted with  rushes,  and  in  Shakespeare's  day  the  stage 
was  strewn  with  them.  Rush-bearing,  a  festival 
having  its  origin  in  connection  with  the  annual  re- 
newal of  rushes  in  churches,  was  kept  up  until  quite 
recently,  and  may  even  still  be  practised  in  out-of-the- 
way  villages. 

The  stock  of  the  '"arthstone"  woman,  who  is  not 
above  doing  a  stroke  of  business  in  bones,  bottles,  and 
kitchen  stuff,  is  usually  on  a  barrow,  drawn  by  a  meek- 
eyed  and  habitually  slow-paced  donkey. 

The  London  Barrow  Woman  ("  Ripe  Cherries  "),  as 
preserved  in  the  cut  from  the  inimitable  pencil  of 
George  Cruikshank,  has  long  since  disappeared.  In 
1830,  when  this  sketch  was  made,  the  artist  had  to 
rely  on  his  memory,  for  she  then  no  longer  plied  her 
trade  in  the  streets.  Her  wares  changed  with  the 
seasons  ;  but  here  a  small  schoolboy  is  being  tempted 
by  ripe  cherries  tied  on  a  stick.  There  being  no  im- 
portation of  foreign  fruit,  the  cherries  were  of  prime 
quality.  May  dukes,  White  heart,  Black  heart,  and 
the  Kentish  cherry,  succeeded  each  other — and,  when 
sold  by  weight,  and  not  tied  on  sticks,  fetched  sixpence, 
fourpence,  or  threepence  per  lb.,  which  was  at  least 
twopence  or  threepence  less  than  charged  at  the  shops. 

The 


ro2  London  Cj'ies. 


The  poor  Barrow  Woman  appears  to  have  been 
treated  very  much  in  the  same  manner  as  the  modern 
costermonger  ;  but  was  without  his  bulldog  power  of 
resistance.  If  she  stopped  to  rest  or  solicit  custom, 
street  keepers,  "  authorized  by  orders  unauthorized  by 
law,"  drove  her  off,  or  beadles  overthrew  her  fruit 
into  the  road.  Nevertheless,  if  Cruikshank  has  not 
idealized  his  memories,  she  was  more  wholesomely  and 
stoutly  clad  than  any  street  seller  of  her  sex — with  the 
one  exception  of  the  milkmaid — who  is  to  be  seen  in 
our  day,  when  the  poor  London  woman  has  lost  the 
instinct  of  neatness  and  finish  in  attire. 

"  Hot  spiced  gingerbread,"  still  to  be  found  in  a 
cold  state  at  village  fairs  and  junketings,  used  to  be 
sold  in  winter  time  in  the  form  of  flat  oblong  cakes  at 
a  halfpenny  each,  but  it  has  long  since  disappeared 
from  our  streets. 

"  Tiddy  Diddy  Doll,  lol,  lol,  lol "  was  a  celebrated 
vendor  of  gingerbread,  and,  according  to  Hone,  was 
always  hailed  as  the  king  of  itinerant  tradesmen.  It 
must  be  more  than  a  century  since  this  dandified 
character  ceased  to  amuse  the  populace.  He  dressed 
as  a  person  of  rank — ruffled  shirt,  white  silk  stockings, 
and  fashionable  laced  suit  of  clothes  surmounted  by  a 
wig  and  cocked  hat  decorated  with  a  feather.  He  was 
sure  to  be  found  plying  his  trade  on  Lord  Mayor's 

day 


'  Tiddy  Diddy  Doll." 


I04  London  Cries. 


day,  at  open  air  shows,  and  on  all  public  occasions. 
He  amused  the  crowd  to  his  own  profit ;  and  some  of 
his  humorous  nonsense  has  been  preserved. 
"  Mary,  Mary,  where  are  you  tiow^  Mary  .-*" 
"J  live  two  steps  underground,  with  a  wiscom  ris- 
com,  and  why  not.  Walk  in,  ladies  and  gentlemen. 
My  shop  is  on  the  second  floor  backwards,  with  a 
brass  knocker  at  the  door.  Here's  your  nice  ginger- 
bread, your  spiced  gingerbread,  which  will  melt  in 
your  mouth  like  a  red-hot  brickbat,  and  rumble  in 
your  inside  like  Punch  in  his  wheelbarrow  ! "  He 
always  finished  up  by  singing  the  fag  end  of  a  song — 
"  Tiddy  Diddy  Doll,  lol,  lol,  lol ;"  hence  his  nickname 
of  Tiddy  Doll.  Hogarth  has  introduced  this  character 
in  his  Execution  scene  of  the  Idle  Apprentice  at 
Tyburn.  Tiddy  Doll  had  many  feeble  imitators  ;  and 
the  woman  described  in  the  lines  that  follow,  taken 
from  a  child's  book  of  the  period,  must  have  been  one 
of  them. 

Tiddy  Diddy  Doll,  lol,  lol,  lol, 
Tiddy  Diddy  Doll,  dumphngs,  oh  ! 
Her  tub  she  carries  on  her  head, 
Tho'  of'ener  under  arm. 
In  merry  song  she  cries  her  trade. 
Her  customers  to  charm. 


London  Cries, 


105 


A  halfpenny  a  plain  can  buy, 
The  plum  ones  cost  a  penny, 
And  all  the  naughty  boys  will  cry 
Because  they  can't  get  any. 


''Large  silver  eels  I" 


Fifty  years  ago  "  Young  Lambs  to  Sell,  two  for  a 
penny,"  which   still  lingers,  was  a  well  known  cry. 
They  were  children's  toys,  the  fleece  made  of  white 
cotton-wool,  attractively  but  perhaps  a  trifle  too  un- 
naturally 


io6  London  Cities, 

naturally  spangled  with  Dutch  gilt.  The  head  was 
of  composition,  the  cheeks  were  painted  red,  there 
were  two  black  spots  to  do  duty  for  eyes,  and  the 
horns  and  legs  were  of  tin,  which  latter  adornment, 
my  younger  readers  may  suggest,  foreshadowed  the 
insufficiently  appreciated  tinned  mutton  of  a  later 
period.  The  addition  of  a  bit  of  pink  tape  tied 
round  the  neck  by  way  of  a  collar  made  a  graceful 
finish,  and  might  be  accepted  as  a  proof  that  the  baby 
sheep  was  perfectly  tame. 

Young  lambs  to  sell,  young  lambs  to  sell. 

Two  for  a  penny,  young  lambs  to  sell. 

If  I'd  as  much  money  as  I  could  tell, 

I  wouldn't  cry  young  lambs  to  sell. 

Dolly  and  Molly,  Richard  and  Nell, 

Buy  my  Young  Lambs  and  I'll  use  you  well  ! 

The  later  song — 

Old  chairs  to  mend,  old  chairs  to  mend. 
If  I'd  as  much  money  as  I  could  spend, 
I'd  leave  off  crying  old  chairs  to  mend — 

— is  obviously  copied  from  the  original  cry  of  "  Young 
Lambs  to  Sell."  In  addition  to  a  few  tools,  the  stock- 
in-trade  of  the  travelling  chair-mender  principally 
consisted  of  rushes,  which  in  later  days  gave  place  to 
cane  split  into  strips  of  uniform  width — a  return  to  more 

ancient 


"  Young  lambs  t&  sell 


io8 


London  Cries. 


ancient   practice.     The  use  of  rush-bottomed  chairs, 
which  are  again  coming  into  aesthetic  fashion,  cannot 


' '  Buy  my  fine  Myrtles  ana  Roses  !  " 


be  traced  back  quite  a  century  and  half.  The  chairs 
in  Queen  Anne's  time  were  seated  and  backed  with 
cane  ;  and  in  the  days  of  EHzabeth  the  seats  were 

cushioned 


London  Cries,  109 

cushioned  and  the  backs  stuffed.  Many  years  ago  an 
old  chair-mender  occupied  a  position  by  a  stone  fixed 
in  the  wall  of  one  of  the  houses  in  Panyer  Alley,  on 
which  is  cut  the  following  inscription  : — 

ffi  % 

O  03    > 

>    Q     ^    O 
O    iz;     o^    »^ 

'"     >     ?  O     "^ 

>  &    ^'  ^;  w   ^ 

ffi  >•  d  ?  H  " 

>H     1^      H    *"•     H 

^  rj   CO  ^   ^ 

W     w      H    a     05 

E   a:    w  I   > 
^  H   >"  h  < 

Being 


CO 

W     O 


no  London  C^'ies. 

Being  entirely  unprotected  and  close  to  the  ground, 
this  curious  relic  of  bygone  times,  which  is  surmounted 
by  a  boldly  carved  figure  of  a  nude  boy  seated  on  a 
panyer  pressing  a  bunch  of  grapes  between  his  hand 
and  foot,  is  naturally  much  defaced  ;  and  that  it  has 
not  been  carried  away  piecemeal  by  iconoclastic 
curiosity-hunters,  is  probably  due  to  its  out-of-the-way 
position.  Panyer  Alley,  the  most  eastern  turning 
leading  from  Paternoster  Row  to  Newgate  Street, 
slightly  rises  towards  the  middle  ;  but  is  not,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Loftie,  an  undoubted  authority  on  all  mat- 
ters pertaining  to  old  London,  the  highest  point  in  the 
city,  there  being  higher  ground  both  in  Cornhill  and 
Cannon  Street.  In  describing  Panyer  Alley,  Stow  in- 
directly alludes  to  a  "  signe  "  therein,  and  it  is  Hone's 
opinion  that  this  stone  may  have  been  the  ancient 
sign  let  into  the  wall  of  a  tavern.  While  the  upper  is 
in  fair  preservation,  the  lower  part  of  the  inscription 
can  hardly  be  read.  When  last  examined,  a  street 
urchin  was  renovating  the  figure  by  a  heartily-laid-on 
surface  decoration  of  white  chalk ;  and  unless  one  of 
the  numerous  antiquarian  or  other  learned  societies 
interested  in  old  London  relics  will  spare  a  few  pounds 
for  the  purchase  of  a  protective  grating,  there  will 
shortly  be  nothing  left  worth  preserving. 

"  New-laid  eggs,  eight  a  groat,"  takes  us  back  to  a 

time 


London  Cries.  1 1 1 

time  when  the  best  joints  and  fresh  country  butter 
were  both  sixpence  a  pound. 

Years  ago  the  tin  oven  of  the  peripatetic  penny  pie- 
man was  found  to  be  too  small  to  meet  the  constant 
and  ever-increasing  strain  made  upon  its  resources  ; 
and  the  owner  thereof  has  now  risen  to  the  dignity  of 
a  shop,  where,  in  addition  to  stewed  eels,  he  dispenses 
what  Albert  Smith  happily  termed  "covered  uncertain- 
ties," containing  messes  of  mutton,  beef,  or  seasonable 
fruit.  Contained  in  a  strong  wicker  basket  with  legs, 
or  in  a  sort  of  tin  oven,  the  pieman's  wares  were  for- 
merly kept  hot  by  means  of  a  small  charcoal  fire.  A 
sip  of  a  warm  stomachic  liquid  of  unknown  but  ap- 
parently acceptable  constituents  was  sometimes  offered 
gratuitously  by  way  of  inducement  to  purchase.  The 
cry  of  "  Hot  Pies"  still  accompanies  one  of  the  first 
and  most  elementary  games  of  the  modern  baby  learn- 
ing to  speak,  who  is  taught  by  his  nurse  to  raise  his 
hand  to  imitate  a  call  now  never  heard. 

The  specimens  of  versification  that  follow  are 
culled  from  various  books  of  London  Cries,  written 
for  the  amusement  of  children,  towards  the  end  of  the 
last  century,  and  now  in  the  collection  of  the  writer  : — 

Large  silver  eels — a  groat  a  pound,  Hve  eels  ! 
Not  the  Severn's  famed  stream 
Could  produce  better  fish, 
H  Sweet 


112  L  071  don  Cries. 

Sweet  and  fresh  as  new  cream, 
And  what  more  could  you  wish  ? 

Pots  and  Kettles  to  mend  ? 

Your  coppers,  kettles,  pots,  and  stew  pans, 
Tho'  old,  shall  serve  instead  of  new  pans. 
Tm  very  moderate  in  my  charge. 
For  mending  small  as  well  as  large. 

Buy  a  Mop  or  a  Broom  ! 

My  mop  is  so  big,  it  might  serve  as  a  wig 

For  a  judge  if  he  had  no  objection. 
And  as  to  my  brooms,  they'll  sweep  dirty  rooms, 

And  make  the  dust  fly  to  perfection. 

Nice  Yorkshire  Cakes  ! 

Nice  Yorkshire  cakes,  come  buy  of  me, 

I  have  them  crisp  and  brown  ; 
They  are  very  good  to  eat  with  tea, 
And  lit  for  lord  or  clown. 

Buy  my  fine  Myrtles  and  Roses  ! 

Come  buy  my  fine  roses,  my  myrtles  and  stocks, 

My  sweet-smelling  balsams  and  close-growing  box. 

Buy  my  nice  Drops— twenty  a  penny,  Peppermint 
drops  ! 

If 


London  Cries. 


113 


''  t'jcs     and  Kettles  to  Mend!" 


1 14  London  Cries. 


If  money  is  plenty  you  may  sure  spare  a  penny, 

Jt  will  purchase  you  twenty — and  that's  a  great  many. 

Six  bunches  a  penny,  sweet  blooming  Lavender  ! 

Just  put  one  bundle  to  your  nose, 

What  rose  can  this  excel  ? 
Throw  it  among  your  finest  clothes, 

And  grateful  they  will  smell. 

Buy  a  live  Chicken  or  a  young  Fowl  ? 

Buy  a  young  Chicken  fat  and  plump, 

Or  take  two  for  a  shilling  ? — 
Is  this  poor  honest  tradesman's  cry  ; 

Come  buy  if  you  are  willing. 

Rabbit  !  Rabbit  ! 

Rabbit  !  a  Rabbit  !  who  will  buy  ? 

Is  all  you  hear  from  him  ; 
The  rabbit  you  may  roast  or  fry, 

The  fur  your  cloak  will  trim. 

My  good  Sir,  will  you  buy  a  Bowl .? 

My  honest  friend,  will  you  buy  a  Bowl, 

A  Skimmer  or  a  Platter  ? 
Come  buy  of  me  a  Rolling  Pin, 

Or  Spoon  to  beat  your  batter. 

Come 


S/x  hunches  a  fenny,  noeet  tloominj  Lavender /" 


I -1 6  London  Cries. 

Come  buy  my  fine  Writing  Ink  ! 

Through  many  a  street  and  many  a  town 

The  Ink-man  shapes  his  way  ; 
The  trusty  Ass  keeps  plodding  on, 
His  master  to  obey. 

Dainty  Sweet-Briar  ! 

Sweet-Briar  this  Girl  on  one  side  holds, 

And  Flowers  in  the  other  basket  ; 
And  for  the  price,  she  that  unfolds 
To  any  one  who'll  ask  it. 

Any  Earthen  Ware,  Plates,  Dishes,  or  Jugs  to-day, — 
any  Clothes  to  exchange,  Madam  .? 

Come  buy  my  Earthen  Ware 

Your  dresser  to  bedeck  ; 
Examine  it  with  care, 

There's  not  a  single  speck. 

See  white  with  edges  brown, 

Others  with  edges  blue  ; 
Have  you  a  left-off  gown. 

Old  bonnet,  hat,  or  shoe  ? 

Do  look  me  up  some  clothes 
For  this  fine  China  jar  ; 


London  Cries.  1 1 7 

If  but  a  pair  of  shoes, 
For  I  have  travelled  far. 

This  flowered  bowl  of  green 

Is  worth  a  gown  at  least ; 
I  am  sure  it  might  be  seen 

At  any  christening  feast. 

Do,  Madam,  look  about 

And  see  what  you  can  find  ; 
Whatever  you  bring  out 

I  will  not  be  behind. 


The   Illustrations. 

Ten  of  the  illustrations  by  that  great  master  of  the 
art  of  caricature,  Thomas  Rowlandson,  are  copied  in 
facsimile  from  a  scarce  set,  fifty-four  in  all,  published 
In  1820,  entitled  "  Characteristic  Sketches  of  the 
Lower  Orders,"  to  which  there  is  a  powerful  preface, 
as  follows  : — 

"  The  British  public  must  be  already  acquainted 
with  numerous  productions  from  the  inimitable  pencil 
of  Mr.  Rowlandson,  who  has  particularly  distin- 
guished himself  in  this  department. 

*'  There  is  so  much  truth  and  genuine  feeling  in  his 

delineations 


1 1 8  London  Cries. 

delineations  of  human  character,  that  no  one  can 
inspect  the  present  collection  without  admiring  his 
masterly  style  of  drawing  and  admitting  his  just  claim 
to  originahty.  The  great  variety  of  countenance,  ex- 
pression, and  situation,  evince  an  active  and  lively 
feeling,  which  he  has  so  happily  infused  into  the 
drawings  as  to  divest  them  of  that  broad  caricature 
which  is  too  conspicuous  in  the  works  of  those  artists 
who  have  followed  his  manner.  Indeed,  we  may  ven- 
ture to  assert  that,  since  the  time  of  Hogarth,  no  artist 
has  appeared  in  this  country  who  could  be  considered 
his  superior  or  even  his  equal." 

The  two  illustrations — "  Lavender,"  with  a  back- 
ground representing  Temple  Bar,  and  "  Fine  Straw- 
berries," with  a  view  of  Covent  Garden— are  from 
"Plates  Representing  the  Itinerant  Traders  of  London 
in  their  ordinary  Costume.  Printed  in  1805  as  a 
supplement  to  'Modern  London'  (London:  printed 
for  Charles  Phillips,  71,  St.  Paul's  Churchyard)."" 
The  set  is  chiefly  interesting  as  representing  London 
scenes  of  the  period  ;  many  parts  of  which  are  novr 
no  longer  recognisable. 

The  crudely  drawn,  but  picturesquely  treated  "  Cat- 
nach"  cuts,  from  the  celebrated  Catnach  press  in 
Seven  Dials,  now  owned  by  Mr.  W.  S.  Fortey,  hardly 
require  separately  indicating. 

The 


London  Cries.  119 

The  four  oval  cuts,  squared  by  the  addition  of  per- 
pendicular lines,  "  Hot  spice  gingerbread  ! "  "O'  Clo!" 
"  Knives  to  Grind  ! "  and  "  Cabbages  O  !  Turnips  ! " 
are  facsimiled  from  a  little  twopenny  book,  entitled, 
"  The  Moving  Market ;  or,  Cries  of  London,  for  the 
amusement  of  good  children,"  published  in  1815  by 
J.  Lumsden  and  Son,  of  Glasgow.  It  has  a  frontis- 
piece representing  a  curious  little  four-in-hand  carriage 
with  dogs  in  place  of  horses,  underneath  which  is 
printed  this  triplet :  — 

See,  girls  and  boys  who  learning  prize, 
Round  London  drive  to  hear  the  cries. 
Then  learn  your  Book  and  ride  likewise." 
The  quaint  cuts,  "  'Ere's  yer  toys  for  girls  an'  boys !" 
"  New-laid  eggs,  eight  a  groat,— crack  'em  and  try 
'em  !  "  "  Flowers,  penny  a  bunch  ! "  (frontispiece),  and 
the  three  ballad  singers,  apparently  taken  from  one  of 
the  earliest  chap-books,  are  really  but  of  yesterday. 
For  these  the  writer  is  indebted  to  his  friend,  Mr. 
Joseph  Crawhall,  of  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  who  uses  his 
cutting  tools  direct  on  the  wood  without  any  copy.  Mr. 
Crawhall's  "  Chap-book  Chaplets,"  and  "  Old  ffrendes 
wyth  newe  Faces,"  quaint  quartos  each  with  many 
hundreds  of  hand-coloured  cuts  in  his  own  peculiar 
and  inimitable  style,  and  "  Izaak  Walton,  his  Wallet 
Book,"  are  fair  examples  of  his  skill  in  this  direction. 

Two 


I20  London  Cries. 

Two  plates  unenclosed  with  borders — "  Old  Chairs 
to  mend  ! "  and  "  Buy  a  Live  Goose  ? "  are  from  that 
once  common  and  now  excessively  scarce  child's 
book,  The  Cj'ies  of  Londoji  as  they  are  Daily  Prac- 
tised^ published  in  1804  by  J.  Harris,  the  successor  of 
"  honest  John  Newbery,"  the  well-known  St.  Paul's 
Churchyard  bookseller  and  publisher. 

George  Cruikshank's  London  Barrow-woman  ("  Ripe 
Cherries"),  "Tiddy  Diddy  Doll,"  and  other  cuts,  are 
from  the  original  illustrations  to  Hone's  dehghtful 
"  Every-Day  Book,"  recently  republished  by  Messrs. 
Ward,  Lock  &  Co. 

The  cuts  illustrating  modern  cries — "  Sw-e-e-p  !  "  ; 
"  Dust,  O  !  "  ;  "  Ow-00  !  "  ;  "  Fresh  Cabbidge  !  "  ; 
and  "  Stinking  Fish  ! "  are  from  the  facile  pencil  of 
Mr.  D.  McEgan. 

Finally,  in  regard  to  the  business  card  of  pussy's 
butcher,  the  veracious  chronicler  is  inclined  to  think 
that  an  antiquarian  might  hesitate  in  pronouncing  it  to 
be  quite  so  genuine  as  it  looks.  This  opinion  coincides 
with  his  own.  In  fact  he  made  it  himself.  As  a  set-off, 
however,  to  the  confession,  let  it  be  said  that  this  is 
the  solo^fantaisie  d'occasion  set  down  herein. 


APPENDIX. 


London  Cries.  i  2 1 


APPENDIX. 

From  "  Notes  a7id  Queries^ 

London  Street  Cry.— What  is  the  meaning  ot 
the  old  London  cry,  "  Buy  a  fine  mousetrap,  or  a  tor- 
mentor for  your  fleas  "  ?  Mention  of  it  is  found  in 
one  of  the  Roxburghe  ballads  dated  1662,  and, 
amongst  others,  in  a  work  dated  about  fifty  years 
earlier.  The  cry  torments  me,  and  only  its  elucidation 
will  bring  ease. 

Andrew  W.  Tuer. 

The  Leadenhall  Press,  E.C. 


London  Street  Cry  (6th  S.  viii.  348).— Was  not 
this  really  a  "  tormentor  {axyoMX flies  '^  ?  The  mouse- 
trap man  would  probably  also  sell  little  bunches  of 
butcher's  broom  {Rtiscus,  the  mouse-thorn  of  the 
Germans),  a  very  effective  and  destructive  weapon  in 
the  hands  of  an  active  butcher^s  boy,  when  employed 
to  guard  his  master's  meat  from  the  attacks  of  flies. 

Edward  Solly. 

London 


122  Londofi  Cries. 

London  Street  Cry  (6th  S.  viii.  348,  393).— The 
following  quotations  from  Taylor,  the  Water  Poet, 
may  be  of  interest  to  Mr.  Tuer  : — 

"  I  could  name  more,  if  so  my  Muse  did  please, 
Of  Mowse  Traps,  and  tormentors  to  kill  Fleas." 
The  Travels  of  Twelve-pence. 

Yet  shall  my  begg'ry  no  strange  Suites  devise, 
As  monopolies  to  catch  Fleas  and  Flyes." 

The  Beggar. 
Faringdon.  Walter  Haines. 


I  notice  a  query  from  you  in  N.  and  Q.  about 
a  London  Street  Cry  which  troubles  you.  Many  of 
the  curious  adjuncts  to  Street  Cries  proper  have,  I 
apprehend,  originally  no  meaning  beyond  drawing 
attention  to  the  Crier  by  their  whimsicality.  I  will 
give  you  an  instance.  Soon  after  the  union  between 
England  and  Ireland,  a  man  with  a  sack  on  his  back 
went  regularly  about  the  larger  streets  of  Dublin. 
His  cry  was  : 

"  Bits  of  Brass, 
Broken  Glass, 
Old  Iron, 
Bad  luck  to  you,  Castlereagh." 

Party 


London  Cries.  \2X 


J 


Party  feeling  against  Lord  Castlereagh  ran  very- 
high  at  the  time,  I  believe,  and  the  political  adjunct 
to  his  cry  probably  brought  the  man  more  shillings 
than  he  got  by  his  regular  calling. 

H.  G.  W. 

P.S. — I  find  I  have  unconsciously  made  a  low  pun. 
The  cry  alluded  to  above  would  probably  be  under- 
stood and  appreciated  in  the  streets  of  Dublin  at  the 
present  with  reference  to  the  Repeal  of  the  Union. 


London  Street  Cry. 

88,  Friargate,  Derby. 
Dear  Sir,-- 

The  "  Tormentor,"  concerning  which  you  inquire 
in  Notes  and  QitciHes  of  this  date,  was  also  known  as 
a  "  Scratch-back,"  and  specimens  are  occasionally  to 
be  seen  in  the  country.  I  recollect  seeing  one,  of 
superior  make,  many  years  ago.  An  ivory  hand,  the 
fingers  like  those  of  "  Jasper  Packlemerton  of  atrocious 
memory,"  were  "curled  as  in  the  act  of"  scratching, 
a  finely  carved  wrist-band  of  lace  was  the  appropriate 
ornament,  and  the  whole  was  attached  to  a  slender 
ivory  rod  of  say  eighteen  inches  in  length.  The  finger 
nails  were  sharpened,  and  the  instrument  was  thus 
available   for   discomfiting  "  back-biters,"  even  when 

engaged 


124  London  Cries. 

engaged  upon  the  most  inaccessible  portions  of  the 
human  superficies.  I  have  also  seen  a  less  costly 
article  of  the  same  sort  carved  out  of  pear-wood  (or 
some  similar  material).  It  is  probable  that  museums 
might  furnish  examples  of  the  "back  scratcher," 
"  scratch  back,"  or  "  tormentor  for  your  fleas." 
Very  truly  yours, 

Alfred  Wallis. 


Junior  Athen.eum  Club, 

Piccadilly,  W. 
Dear  Sir,— 

On  turning  over  the  leaves  of  Notes  a?td  Queries 
I  happened  on  your  enquiry  re  "  Tormentor  for  your 
fleas."  May  I  ask,  have  you  succeeded  in  getting  at 
the  meaning  or  origin  of  this  curious  street  cry  ?  I 
have  tried  to  trace  it,  but  in  vain.  It  occurs  to  me 
as  just  possible  that  the  following  circumstance  may 
bear  on  it  : — 

The  Japanese  are  annoyed  a  good  deal  with  fleas. 
They  make  little  cages  of  bamboo— such  I  suppose  as 
a  small  bird  cage  or  mouse-trap — containing  plenty 
of  bars  and  perches  inside.  These  bars  they  smear 
over  with  bird-lime,  and  then  take  the  cage  to  bed 
with  them.     Is  it  not,  as  I  ^:s.y,  just  possible^  that  one 

of 


London  Cries.  125 

of  our  ancient  mariners  brought  the  idea  home  with 
him  and  started  it  in  London  ?  If  so,  a  maker  of 
bird  cages  or  mouse-traps  is  Hkely  to  have  put  the 
idea  into  execution,  and  cried  his  mouse-traps  and 
"  flea  tormentors  "  in  one  breath. 

Faithfully  yours, 

Douglas  Owen. 


Fro7n  ^^ Notes  and  Queries^''  April  id>th,  1885. 

London  Cries. — A  cheap  and  extended  edition  of 
my  London  Street  Cries  being  on  the  eve  of  publica- 
tion, I  shall  be  glad  of  early  information  as  to  the 
meaning  of  "  A  dip  and  a  wallop  for  a  bawbee  "  *  and 
"  Water  for  the  buggs."  *  I  recollect  many  years  ago 
reading  an  explanation  of  the  former,  but  am  doubtful 
as  to  its  correctness. 

Andrew  W.  Tuer. 

The  Leadenhall  Press,  E.G. 


One  who  was  an  Edinburgh  student  towards  the  end 
of  last  century  told  me  that  a  man  carrying  a  leg  of 
mutton  by  the  shank  would  traverse  the  streets  crying 
"  Twa  dips  and  a  wallop  for  a  bawbee."    This  brought 

*  See  p.  29. 

the 


'i2  6  London  Cries. 

the  gude-wives  to  their  doors  with  pails  of  boiling 
water,  which  was  in  this  manner  converted  into 
"  broth." 

Norman  Chevers,  M.D. 
32,  Tavistock  Road,  W. 
April  18//^,  1885. 


COCKNEY   PRONUNCIATION. 

25,  Argyll  Road,  Kensington,  W., 

24//^  Aprils  1885. 
Dear  Mr.  Tuer,— 

The  Cockney  sound  of  long  a  which  is  confused 
with  received  f,  is  very  different  from  it,  and  where  it 
approaches  that  sound,  the  long  i  is  very  broad,  so 
that  there  is  no  possibility  of  confusing  them  in  a 
Cockney's  ear.  But  is  the  sound  Cockney  ?  Granted 
it  is  very  prevalent  in  E.  and  N.  London,  yet  it  is 
rarely  found  in  W.  and  S.W.  ]\Iy  belief  is  that  it  is 
especially  an  Essex  variety.  There  is  no  doubt  about 
its  prevalence  in  Essex,  so  that  [very  roughly  indeed] 
"  I  say "  there  becomes  "  oy  sy."  Then  as  regards 
the  o  and  on.  These  are  never  pronounced  alike. 
The  0  certainly  often  imitates  received  ow^  though  it 
has  more  distinctly  an  0  commencement ;  but  when 

that 


Lofidon  Cries.  127 

that  is  the  case,  oic  has  a  totally  different  sound,  which 
dialect-writers  usually  mark  as  aow^  having  a  broad  a 
commencement,  almost  a  in  bad.  Finer  speakers  — 
shopmen  and  clerks — will  use  a  finer  a.  The  sound 
of  short  ti  in  nut^  does  not  sound  to  me  at  all  like  e  in 
net.  There  are  great  varieties  of  this  "  natural  vowel," 
as  some  people  call  it,  and  our  received^??///  is  much 
finer  than  the  general  southern  provincial  and  northern 
Scotch  sounds,  between  which  lie  the  mid  and  north 
England  sounds  rhyming  to  foot  nearly,  and  various 
transitional  forms.  Certainly  the  sounds  of  mit^  gnat 
are  quite  different,  and  are  never  confused  by  speakers  ; 
yet  you  would  write  both  as  net. 

The  pronunciation  of  the  Metropolitan  area  is  ex- 
tremely mixed  ;  no  one  form  prevails.  We  may  put 
aside  educated  or  received  English  as  entirely  arti-- 
ficial.  The  N.,  N.E.,  and  E.  districts  all  partake  of 
an  East  Anglian  character  ;  but  whether  that  is  recent, 
or  belongs  to  the  Middle  Anglian  character  of  Mid- 
dlesex, is  difficult  to  say.  I  was  born  in  the  N. 
district,  within  the  sound  of  Bow  Bells  (the  Cockney 
limits),  over  seventy  years  ago,  and  I  do  not  recall  the 
i  pronunciation  or  a  in  my  boyish  days,  nor  do  I 
recollect  having  seen  it  used  by  the  older  humourists. 
Nor  do  I  find  it  in  "Errors  of  Pronunciation  and  Im- 
proper Expressions, Used  Frequently  and  Chiefly  by  the 
I  Inhabitants 


128  London  Cries. 

Inhabitants  of  London,"  1817,  which  likewise  does  not 
note  any  pronunciation  of  o  like  ow.  Hence  I  am 
inclined  to  believe  that  both  are  modernisms,  due  to 
the  growing  of  London  into  the  adjacent  provinces. 
They  do  not  seem  to  me  yet  prevalent  in  the  W. 
districts,  though  the  N.W.  is  transitional.  South  of 
the  Thames,  in  the  S.W.  districts,  I  think  they  are 
practically  unknown.  In  the  S.E.  districts,  which  dip 
into  N.  Kent,  the  finer  form  of  aow  for  oit  is  prevalent. 
The  uneducated  of  course  form  a  mode  of  speech 
among  themselves.  But  I  am  sorry  to  find  even 
school  teachers  much  infected  with  the  z,  ow^  aow, 
pronunciations  of  a,  0,  oit,  in  N.  districts. 

Of  course  your  Cockney  orthography  goes  upon  very 
broad  lines,  and  you  are  quite  justified  in  raising  a 
laugh  by  apparent  confusions,  where  no  confusions  are 
made  by  the  speakers  themselves,  as  Hans  Breitmann 
did  with  the  German.  The  confusion  is  only  in  our 
ears.  They  speak  a  language  we  do  not  use.  To 
write  the  varieties  of  sounds,  especially  of  diphthongs, 
with  anything  like  correctness,  requires  a  phonetic 
alphabet  which  cannot  even  be  read,  much  less  written, 
without  great  study,  such  as  you  cannot  look  for  in 
readers  who  want  only  to  be  amused.  But  another 
question  arises.  Should  we  lay  down  a  pronunciation  ? 
There  never  has  been  any  authority  capable  of  doing 

so. 


London  Cries.  1 29 


so.     Orthoepists  may  protest,  but  the  fashion  of  pro- 
nunciation will  again  change,  as  it  has  changed  so 
often  and  so  markedly  during  the  last  six  hundred 
years  ;  see  the  proofs  in  my  Early  English  Profiunci- 
atio7i.     Why  should  we  not  pronounce  a  as  we  do  f, 
pronouncing  f  as  we  do  oy  ?    Why  should  we  not  call 
o  as  we  now  call  ow^ pronouncing  that  as  aow'^.    Is  not 
our  a  a  change  from  i  (the  German  ei^  ai)  in  say^  aiaay, 
_pazn,  etc.  ?     Is  not  our  oz^  a  change  from  our  sound  of 
00  in  cow,  etc.?  Again,  our  oo  replaces  an  old  oA  sound. 
There  is  nothing  but  fashion  which  rules  this.     But 
when  sounds  are  changed  in  one  set  of  vowels,  a  com- 
pensating change  takes  place  in  another  set,  and  so 
no  confusion  results.     In  one  part  of  Cheshire  I  met 
with  four  sounds  of  y  in  wy,  never  confused  by  natives, 
although  a  received  speaker  hears  only  one,  and  all 
arose  from  different  sources.     Why  is  one  pronunci- 
ation horrid  (or  aw-ud),  and   another  not  t     Simply 
because  they  mark  social  grades.     Of  course  I  prefer 
my  own  pronunciation,  it's  been  my  companion  for  so 
many  years.      But   others,  just  as   much   of  course, 
prefer  theirs.   When  I  brought  out  the  Pho?ietic  News, 
in  phonetic  spelling,  many  years  ago,  a  newsvendor 
asked  me,  "Why  write  neewz?  We  always  say  noozeP 
Very  truly  yours, 

Alexander  J.  Ellis. 


London  Cries. 


Index. 


Page 

A  dip  and  a  wallop  for  a  baw- 
bee ! 2g,  125,  126 

Act,  Chimney  Sweeps'  ...     64 

Addison,  Cries  of  London  .  25,  30 

Albert  Smith's  "  Covered  Un- 
certainties" .     .     . 

Ale  Scurvy-grass  .     . 

All  my  teeth  ache  !   . 

All  the  fun  of  the  fair 

Ancient  tavern  sign  . 

Anecdote  of  a  simpler 

Aphorisms,  Book  of 

Area  sneak  thieves   . 

'Arry  and  Emma  Ann 


Bartholomew  Fair    .       38,  39,  42 
Bartkoloine^v  Fair,  Ben  Jon- 
son's  (1614)  25 

Beating  of  one's  wife     ...  51 
Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  Bon- 

duca 25 

Beau  pot  ?  Will  you  buy  a     .  86 

Bellows-mender 94 

Bells,  Merry  Christ  Church   .  33 

Belman 20 


Page 

Blacking,  cake 44 

Black  sheep 4$ 

Blowing  a  horn  in  the  night  .  51 
Bonduca,  Beaumont  and  Flet- 
cher's    25 

Book  of  Aphorisms  ....  36 

Boot-black,  The  modern    .     ,  44 
Boot  laces — and  the  boot  laces!  54 

Brickdust 92 

Bridgwater  Library  ....  14 
British  Museum,  Collection  of 

cries  in 16 

Buggs  !  Water  for  the,  29,  125,  126 

Buns  !  Hot  cross      ....  97 
Busby's     Costumes    of    the 

Lower  Orders 35 

Business    card     of     pussy's 

butcher    65, 120 

Buy  a  beau  pot  ? 86 

Buy  a  bill  of  the  play  ?      .     .  97 
"  Buy  a  broom  "  criers,  Flem- 
ish    96 

Buy  a  flower,  sir  ?     ....  68 

Buy  my  rumps  and  burrs  ?     ,  38 

Buy  my  singing  glasses  ?  .     ,  12 


1^2 


London  Cries. 


Page 

Cake  blacking 44 

Calling  price  before  quantity.     64 

Candlewick 5 

Cantlie's  (Dr.  J.)  "  Degenera- 
tion among  Londoners  "     •     72 

Canwyke  Street 5 

Caricature,     political.     Cries 

the  vehicle  for 29 

Catnach  illustrations    .     .     .118 

Cats,  London 64 

Caveat  against  cut-purses  .  42 
Chairs  in  Queen  Anne's  time.  108 
Chairs  in  Queen  Elizabeth's 

time 108 

Chairs,  rush-bottomed .  .  ,  108 
Characteristic  sketches  of  the 

lower  orders  (1820)  .  .  .117 
Characters,  Humorous.  .  .  52 
Charles  II.,  Cries  in  the  time 

of 18 

Cherryes  in  the  ryse  ...  3 
Chimney  Sweeps'  Act  ...    64 

Clean  yer  boots  ? 44 

Coachman,  Hackney  ...  70 
Cockney  pronunciation,    31, 

53,  72,  73,  74,  126-129 
Cockney  pronunciation,  Lon- 
don Globe 78 

Colly  Molly  Puffe  !  Spectator  12 
Costermonger,     or     Costard- 
monger    46 

Costumes  oftheLower  Orders, 

.  Busby's 35 

"Covered       Uncertainties," 
Albert  Smith's 11 1 


Page 
Crawhall's  (Joseph)   illustra- 
tions     119 

Cream  made  of  turnips.     .     .     60 
Cries — Collection    in    British 

Museum 16 

Cries,   Old   London  Street- 
Examples  of      ....    76-92 

Cries,  Tempest's 6 

Cries  in  the  time  of  Charles 

the  Second 18 

Cries,  Under-street  ....     70 
Cries,    vehicle    for     political 

caricature 29 

Cries   of  London,   Addison's 

mention  of 25,  30 

Cries  of  LoJidoti  as  they  are 
daily  Practised,  J.  Harris 

(1804) 120 

Cries  of  London,  earliest  men- 
tion of 3 

Cries  of  London,  engraved  by 

Schiavonetti  and  Wheatley  42 
Cries      of    London    for    the 

amusement  of  good  children  119 
Cries  of  London,  Humorous, 

52,  53,  54 
Cries  of  London,  Lumsden's  119 
Cries   of  London,  Roxburgh 

collection  of 25-33 

Cries  of  London,  Sandby's    .     31 
Cries    of    London    (J.    T.) 

Smith's 16 

Cries  of  London.  Specimens 

of  versification  .  .  .  111-117 
Cries  of  London,  Spectator  .  25 
Cries  of  York 14 


London  Cries, 


133 


Page 
Cruikshank's  London  barrow- 
woman      100 

*'Cryer,"  Public 22 

Cryes,  Tempest's      ....       6 

Cuckoo  flowers 35 

Cut-purses,  Caveat  against     .    42 

Dead  letter  act,  A  ....  51 
"  Degeneration  amongst  Lon- 
doners," Dr.  Jas.  Cantlie's  72 
Description  of  Illustrations  117- 
120 
"  Doing  "  the  public      ...     47 

Door  Mats 94 

Doublets,  Old 10 

Do  you  want  a  lick  on  the 

head  ? 30 

Du  Maurier's  Steam  Launch 
in  Venice 72 

Earliest  mention    of  London 

Cries 3 

Early  green  peas      ....  94 

Early  matches 56 

Early  umbrellas 70 

Elizabethan   Statutes  of  the 

streets 51 

Everyday  Book,  Hone's,  36, 

42,  52,  96,  102,  no,  120 

Facetious    salesmen     of  the 

streets 52 

Fair,  Bartholomew  .  .  38,  39,  42 
Faux,  the  Conjurer  ....  40 
Fine  tie  or  a  fine  bob,  sir  ?  .36 
Fleas  !  Tormentor  for,  24,  121-125 


Page 

Flea  trap 25 

Flemish  "Buy a  broom"  criers  96 
Flower    girls    at    the    Royal 

Exchange 68 

"  Flowers,  Penny  a  Bunch  !  " 

(frontispiece) 119 

Frontispiece,  "Flowers,  Pen- 
ny a  Bunch !"      .     .     .     .119 

Gardner'sCollection  of  Prints  7 
Gay's  poor  apple  girl     ...     28 

Gay's  Trivia 26 

Gazette,  Lo7idon 14 

Gingerbread,  Hot  spiced  .  .102 
Green  peas,  Early  ....  94 
Green  rushes,  O  !  ....  98 
Grose,  Francis — The  Olio,    30,  62 

Ha  !  ha  !  Poor  Jack  !   .     .    .      8 
Hackney  Coachman      ...     70 
Hanway  (Jonas)  the  philan- 
thropist     64 

Herb  gatherers 32 

Heywood's  Rape  of  Lucrece .  24 
Highest  ground  in  London, 

109,  no 

Hokey-pokey 58 

Hone's  Everyday  Book     .  36, 

42,  52,  96,  102,  no,  120 
Honest  John  Newbery  .  .  .120 
Hot-baked  wardens !     ...     38 

Hot  cross  buns  ! 97 

Hot  mutton  trumpery  !      .     .     30 

Hot  pies Ill 

Hot  pudding 96 


134 


London  Cines. 


Page 

Hot  rolls 96 

Hot  spiced  gingerbread  .  .  102 
Hogarth's  Idle  Apprentice  .  104 
Hogarth's  Laughing  Audience   98 

Houndsditch 47>  5° 

Humorous  characters    ...     52 

Humorous  Cries  of  London   .    52, 

53.  54 

Humorous  nonsense      .     •    .  104 

Ices,  Neapolitan 58 

Ices,  penny 58 

Idle  Apprentice,  Hogarth's  .  104 
Illustrations,  Catnach  .  .  .118 
Illustrations,  Crawhall's  .  .119 
Illustrations,  Description  of  117- 
120 
Illustrations,  McEgan's  .  .  120 
Illustrations,  Rowlandson's  .  117 
I'm  on  the  woolsack  !  ...  31 
Imitators    of    Tiddy    Diddy 

Doll 104 

Inner  and  Outer  Circle  Rail- 
way      75 

Inner  Circle  Railway    ...    73 

Irons !  Marking 42 

Itinerant  traders,  Plates  repre- 
senting (1805)    118 

Jack-in-the-box  seller    ...     56 
Japan     your      shoes,     your 

honour? 44 

Jaw-work,  up  and  under  jaw- 
work  ! 54 


Page 
Johnson    (Dr.),  Turnips    and 

carrots,  O  ! 43 

Jonson's  (Ben)  Bartholoniezv 

Fair  (1614) 25 

Knives  to  grind  ! 98 

Laughing  Audience,  Hogarth's  98 

Laroon,  Capt 7 

Laroon,  Marcellus  ....  6 
Lice,  penny  a  pair,  boot  lice  !  5  j 
Lights — pipe  and  c'gar ...  56 
Loftie's  Old  Lo>idon  .  .  .  i  la 
London  barrow-woman,  Cruik- 

shank's 100 

London  cats 64. 

London   Cries,   as    they   are 

daily  Practised,  J.    Harris 

(1804) I20> 

London  Cries,  earliest  men- 
tion of 3 

London  Cries,  engraved  by 
Schiavonetti  and  Wheatley    ^-z 

London  Cries,  Humorous, 52,  53,  54. 

London,  Cries  of— for  the 
A  iHusemetit  of  Good  Chil- 
dreji iiQv 

London  Cries,  Sandby's    .     .     31 

London  Cries,  Specimens  of 
versification  .     .     .     .      111-117 

London  Gazette 14 

London,    Highest  ground   in 

109,  110 

London  Lyckpenny  ....       3 

Londo7t  Spy  (1703)  Ned 
Ward's 38 


London  Cries. 


\  Page 

London  street  cries.  Old,  Ex- 
amples of 765  92 

London,    The    Three  Ladies 
?/"(i584) 

Lord  Mayor's  day    .     .     . 

Ltnuer       Orders,        Busby 
Costumes  of  the     .     .     . 

Lower  orders.  Characteristic 
sketches  of  (1820)  .     .     . 

Lucifer  match,  The  .     .     . 

Lumsden's  CT^es  0/ London 

Lyckpenny,  London      .     . 

Lydgate,  John      .... 


96 
50 

35 

117 

56 

119 

3 

3 


Marking  irons ! 42 

Marking  stones 16 

Marquis    Townshend's,     TJic 

Pedlars  {\-]6i)        ....  29 

Match,  Brimstone    ....  56 

Match,  Lucifer 56 

Match-selling 48 

Match,  Vesuvian 56 

Matches,  Early 56 

McEgan's  illustrations  .     .     .120 

Merry  Christ  Church  bells  .  33 
Metropolitan      and     District 

Railways 73 

Milk  below,  maids  ! ....  67 

Modem  boot-black  ....  44 
Modern  street  cries,  62,  64,  67-70 

Mornvig  itt  Town,  Swift's     .  10 

Muffin  man 62 

My  name  and  your  name,  etc.  42 


Page: 

Nameless  toy,  A 54, 

NeapoHtan  ices 58 

New  laid  eggs,  crack  'em  and 

try  'em  ! 54 

New  laid  eggs,  eight  a  groat    no 

Newsman,  The 68 

Newspaper,  Shilling  for  a  .  .  68 
Nonsense,  Humorous  .  .  .  104. 
Notes  a?td  Queries,  Refer- 
ences to  .  .  36,  121,  122,  125 
Novelties  from  the  continent  50 
Newbery,  Honest  John     .     .  120 

O'Clo! 62 

Old  chairs  to  mend  !       ...  106 

Old  doublets 10 

'Okey-pokey 58 

Old  London,  'Loiiv^^     .     .     .110 
Old  London  street  cries,  Ex- 
amples of 76-92 

Olio,  The — Francis  Grose.   30,  62 

On  the  bough 3, 

On'y  a  ha'penny  !  ....  54 
Orange  seller.  Dr.  Randal,  The  52 
Oranges  !  Oratorio  ....  53 
Ornaments     for      your      fiio 

stoves ! 60 

'Orrible   railway  haccident — 

speshill  'dishun      ....     68 
OuLcnes  in  the  night     ...     51 

Panyer  Alley   .......   109. 

Pedlars,    The  (1763)   List   of 
Cries  in 29 


136 


London  Cries, 


Page 
Penny  for  a  shillin'  Musterated 

magazine  !     .     .  ...     51 

-Penny  ices !  .  .  •  ...  58 
Penny  pieman,  The  .  .  .  .111 
Philanthropist,  Jonas  Hanway, 

The 64 

Pieman,  The  penny .  .  ,  .111 
Pins,  Hone's  Reference  to  .  7 
Pipe  cleaner— penny  for  two  !     58 

Pipe-lights 56 

Plates  representing  itinerant 

traders  (1805)    118 

Play  !  Buy  a  bill  of  the  .  .  97 
Political  caricature,  Cries  the 

vehicle  for 29 

Poor  apple  girl,  Gay's  ...  28 
Prisoners!  Remember  the  poor  14 
Pronunciation,  Cockney,    31, 

53.  72,  73i  74.  127-130 
Pronunciation  (Cockney)  Lon- 
don Globe 73 

PubHc"Cryer" 22 

Pudding,  Hot 96 

Pussy's  butcher,  Business  card 
of 65,  120 

•Queen  Anne's  time,  Chairs  in  108 
Queen  Elizabeth's  time.  Chairs 
in 108 

Rabbits 98 

Railway,  Underground  .  .  70 
Railways,    Inner    and  Outer 

Circle 75 

Railways,   Metropolitan  and 

District 73 


Page 
Randal     (Dr.),     the     orange 

seller 52 

Rape  of  Lucrece,  Heywood's     24 

Rat-catcher 18 

Remember  the  poor  prisoners  !    14 

Rolls,  Hot 96 

Rowlandson's  illustrations  .  117 
Roxburgh  Collection,  Cries  of 

London 25-33 

Royal  Exchange,  Flower  girls 

at  the 68 

Ruddle 16 

Rumps  and  burrs  !  Buy  my  .     38 

Rush-bearing 100 

Rush-bottomed  chairs   .     .     .   108 

Rushes,  green 5 

Ryster  grene 5 

Salesmen     of     the      streets, 

Facetious 52 

Saloop 35 

Samphire 98 

Sandby's  (Paul)  London  Cries  31 

Scurvy-grass,  Ale      ....  32 

Shilling  for  a  newspaper    .     .  68 

Shrimps  !  Stinking  ....  53 

Simpler,  Anecdote  of  a      .     .  32 

Simplers 32 

Singing  glasses  !  Buy  my  .  12 
Small  coale,  Swift's  reference 

to 10 

Smith  (J.  T.)  Cries  of  London  16 

Soot  !  or  Sweep  O  !  ...  64 
Spectator— CoWy  Molly  Puffe  !  12 


London  Cries. 


m 


Page 
Spectator,  Cries  of  London    .  25 
Speshill  'dishun,  'orrible  rail- 
way haccident !     ....  68 
Statutes  of  the  streets,  Eliza- 
bethan        51 

Steam  Launch  in  Venice,  Du 

Manner's 72 

Steele's      comedy     of      The 

Fjineral 26 

Stinking  shrimps  !     ....  53 

Stones,  Marking 16 

Stop  thief  ! 16 

Street  cries,  Modern,  62,  64,  67-70 

Street  music,  Regulation  of  .  52 

Sweep  your  door  away,  mum  ?  53 

Swift's  Morning  in  Town      .  10 
Swift's     reference     to     small 

coale 10 


Tavern  sign,  Ancient  .  .  .110 
Taylor's  Travels  of  Twelve- 

petice 25 

Tempest's  Cryes 6 

The  Funeral,  Steele's  comedy 

of 26 

Thieves,  Area  sneak  ...  48 
Three  ladies  of  London  (1584)  96 
Tiddy  Diddy  Doll  ....  102 
Tiddy  Diddy  Doll's  imitators  104 

Tinker 94 

Tormentor  for  your  fleas  !  24, 

121-125 


Page 

Townshend,     Marquis  —  The 

Pedlars 29 

Toy,  A  nameless 54 

Travels  ofT-welvepettce,  Tay- 
lor's        25 

Tricksters 47>  48 

Trivia,  Gay's 26 

Troope  every  one  !  .  .  .  .  12 
Turnips  and  carrots,  O  !    Dr. 

Johnson's  reference  thereto  43 

Turnips,  Cream  made  of  .     .  60 

Type  seller 42 

Umbrellas,  Early  ....  70 
Underground  Railway  ...  70 
Under-street  Cries    ....     70 

Versification,  Specimens  of,  in 
London  Cries    .     .     .      111-117 

Wardens  !  Hot  baked  ...  38 
Ward's    (Ned)   London  Spy 

(1703) 38 

Watchman 35 

Water  for  the  Buggs  !  29,  125,  126 

Waterman,  The 36 

"What  d'ye  ack?".  ...  24 
Whistling     prohibited     after 

9  o'clock 51 

White  sand  and  grey  sand  !   .  97 

Wigs,  The  best 36 

Woolsack  !    I'm  on  the      .     .  31 

York,  Cries  of .  ....  14 
Young  lambs  to  sell !    .     .     .  105 


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